Santen USA Headquarters

Project Details

Project Description

Santen Pharmaceutical Company, headquartered in Osaka, Japan, is a leading global opthamalic and rheumatologic pharmaceutical company with operations in 19 countries. Their new US headquarters is located at the Hollis Business Center in Emeryville, in a 225,500 sq ft former warehouse that the firm had previously converted to office use in 2001.

The first task was to understand how Santen operated in their current space. With feedback from the Santen steering committee and department heads, we created a space program that defined current staffing levels by department along with anticipated growth. After several interim steps, the steering committee made the bold move to eliminate all private offices. The executives agreed that if they could work in an open environment then everyone could. To make the design even more flexible we decided to make all of the workstations the same size so that staff and departments could shrink or expand as needed.

To offset the loss of personal private space we introduced a series huddle rooms sufficient in size for meetings of 4-6 people. We also added soundproof phone booths for private calls and/or video chats. We paired the huddle rooms together and spread those pods out on the floor to create defined work areas between them. This helped to break up the space and create smaller neighborhoods with one or several departments in each. We dubbed the final plan layout our “Village” scheme where the huddle pods were buildings and the open office areas between them were open neighborhood plazas.

In response to a need for a meeting space large enough for the entire staff to meet, we created a flexible open space at the main entrance where staff can mingle as they come and go from the office. We turned a required stair up to the existing mezzanine into a seating platform that could be used for as an “all-hands” meeting space.

In addition to the ample meeting spaces we wanted to provided several informal areas for staff to gather including a cafe and a kitchen. The kitchen has a long built-in bench with tables suitable for both dining and informal meeting. In the open café space, we provided a large communal table intended to encourage staff socialization. In addition, we added banquettes that provide space for 4-6 people to dine or meet over lunch.