When Acxiom, the data analytics and marketing software firm, moved its California office to Redwood City, there was some discussion about whether to adopt open benching workstations, as most tech firms do, or keep some version of the cubicle-style seating presently in use at the company’s headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. O+A lobbied for open plan and the decision-makers in Little Rock agreed.
When Acxiom, the data analytics and marketing software firm, moved its California office to Redwood City, there was some discussion about whether to adopt open benching workstations, as most tech firms do, or keep some version of the cubicle-style seating presently in use at the company’s headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. O+A lobbied for open plan and the decision-makers in Little Rock agreed.
City San Mateo, CA
Year 2014
Size 62,000 sq ft
Team Denise Cherry, Perry Stephney, Kroeun Dav, Renee Laput-Mendoza, Chase Lunt, Alma Lopez, Chris Lindes
Photographer Jasper Sanidad
Though Acxiom has been in business for over 40 years, their desire for a space that reflects the company’s future drove many of the choices their team made with O+A. Work styles are changing all over the country and at companies old and new. Every work place that endorses that change positions itself to attract top talent.
Acxiom moved into a space formerly occupied by Sony. The old office was notable for its odd angles and curious points of connection—a good fit with Acxiom’s information analysis, which finds profitable connections in magnitudes of marketing data. The new office embraces this angularity—from a central staircase which reverses direction halfway up to the pattern of carpet tiles in the boardroom. The subliminal message is precision.
Another message: clarity. As a mature company with roots in the middle of the country, Acxiom favored a restrained color scheme. The white interior here is so uniformly white that it becomes a striking backdrop. Those carpet tiles in the boardroom, fitted together in triangles of lavender and lilac, are the richest indulgence of color on the project.
Though this was a tight-budget job, O+A gave it a high-end finish by employing a stripped down aesthetic that always looks rich. The minimalism apparent in the reception area, at the base of the stairs and on the 4th floor landing communicates confidence, clarity, calm—all the assets of maturity for a company looking with enthusiasm to the future.
