Twitter’s Office Space – Home Tweet Home
Interior designer feathers Twitter’s nest
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Who says tech whiz kids don’t have a design sensibility? When Twitter recently moved into its new offices in downtown San Francisco, many of the bright young things who work there were concerned about the decor on their walls. Specifically, they were insistent that a series of cloud decals that had adorned their previous work space – a throwback to an early Twitter logo – should accompany them to their new work space.
Fortunately for them, Sara Morishige Williams, the designer assigned to give the new offices a makeover, and the wife of Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, was more than aware of what was called for, having lived and breathed the Twitter culture since the company started in 2007.
Before anything, however, she had to find offices to accommodate the rapidly expanding team, whose number currently stands at 110 but, given the success of the company’s microblogging service, is likely to grow. Morishige Williams, who has worked on residential interiors but was new to a workplace project, toured a number of spaces that were up for sublease, many of them empty.
Eventually she found sixth-floor offices that had previously been occupied by social-networking site Bebo. A key attraction was that the space had been built out by Brereton Architects a few years ago, which meant Morishige Williams could concentrate on the interiors, as the unit didn’t require any structural changes.
Morishige Williams’ priorities when considering how to give the new space the Twitter imprint revolved around three key issues: familiarity, levity and sustainability.
“Twitter is under an intense spotlight despite being a very young company, but it stays grounded with a culture of humility, empathy and compassion,” she says. “People there care about sustainability and are involved in global issues, so I was careful to take this into consideration with my design and material choices.”
Reception desk re-clad
Morishige Williams says she chose furniture and fittings that would endure, be minimalist and, wherever possible, reuse materials. She started in the vast lobby area by deciding to retain the sweeping reception desk, but give it a new look by having its base re-clad with reclaimed barn wood. She collaborated on this, and several other elements in the work space, with Mark Rogero at Oakland’s Concreteworks. The large Twitter sign on one of the walls in the lobby is made from the same reclaimed barn wood and hot-rolled steel and was fabricated by Lundberg Design.
The lobby also introduces the playful element Morishige Williams was striving for throughout the space. A pair of neon-green deer take pride of place in a corner bay whose giant windows provide stunning views of Yerba Buena Gardens. The animals were garden ornaments when Morishige Williams found them, and somewhat the worse for wear. She repaired and painted them – fixing a pair of real antlers onto one – and the duo accompanied the Twitter team from their former offices. The reception area also features a wall of tree-branch hooks made by John Robohm at Live Wire Farm.
In the open-plan offices themselves, the immediate impression is of natural light and space – neither of which one associates with your typical urban work space. Close inspection reveals a plethora of whimsical design touches – almost all of which have been inspired by nature and the company’s own visual branding.
“I wanted the space to be personal, not unlike a home,” says Morishige Williams. “And I wanted to bring the outdoors in.”
Thus, each of the company’s conference rooms has been named after a bird, and an aluminum cutout of the bird’s silhouette – be it a heron, a skylark or a plover – has been placed on the respective doors.
Concreteworks was commissioned to make another important element for the new space: four outsize conference tables. These were crafted in concrete composed of recycled aggregates, including 40 percent fly ash, and their bases were also clad in barn wood. The piece de resistance is the main conference room’s table, the top inlaid with a scattering of Twitter’s signature bird motifs cut out of white opaque acrylic. Each of the meeting rooms is equipped with extra large whiteboards, because, says Morishige Williams, “everybody here is really into whiteboards.”
The avian theme is repeated on the office’s longest wall, for which Morishige Williams designed a sweep of birds created with custom-made decals. The design was based on a photograph Morishige Williams took of a flock of birds when visiting her father-in-law in snowy Nebraska.
Morishige Williams says she was fortunate that the space’s existing carpet, a striped prism pattern on a black background, was nice enough to keep. She matched colors in the carpet for the walls, which were painted in low-VOC paints. The tones range from robin’s-egg blue to icy green. To create contrast, one wall has been painted dark gray.
Focus on comfort
“In the design of Twitter’s space, I wanted community spaces to have elements of a comfortable living room, where people could escape their desks yet continue working,” says Morishige Williams. With this in mind, many areas in the Twitter headquarters have been given over to comfortable seating.
Morishige Williams chose furniture that, while stylish, was also functional and offered value for money. All the meeting-room chairs are recyclable and stackable. The chairs used in the dining area are the Jake model from Room & Board. As well as in-house lunch, Twitter employees are offered regular teatimes. “Google has its TGIF get-togethers – we have tea,” says Morishige Williams.
Many of the sofas were custom-made by San Francisco company Furniture Envy, which will make pieces to order. Close to the DJ booth that the company inherited sits a row of Chiquita stools by Kenneth Cobonpue. With their seats made of natural rattan poles, they are visually striking but surprisingly comfortable.
Time was in short supply for Morishige Williams, both because the move happened quickly and because it coincided with the birth of her first child. One aspect she knew would make a significant impact was lighting, so she tackled that early on, switching out unattractive fixtures in favor of pendants and shades that cast a warm glow. It proved a relatively easy way to make the space more inviting.
But her finishing touch is perhaps the most telling. In order to make the staff feel welcome in the new work environment, Morishige Williams commissioned small Throwboy pillows for each employee, which were placed on their chairs on their first day in the new offices. Embroidered on each are the words “Home Tweet Home.”
“Sara has successfully translated the essential qualities of Twitter,” says Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. “There is a deep acknowledgment of openness in the layout, and crafty nods toward thinking green with the use of reclaimed barn wood and concrete tabletops made of recycled glass. Technology is driven by nature, by people pushing it in clever new directions, and Sara gets that. …
“The space we occupy in San Francisco is where we hope to do our best work. Sara’s instinct and attention to detail helps inspire us to do just that.”