Key Dates
Image Credit : Eric Laignel
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Project Overview
The HOK-designed Shiseido Americas Headquarters, is an eight-floor vertical campus at 390 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, that encapsulates the firm’s history, sense of community, and reputation as global leader in beauty and innovation.
Team
Project Brief
Like all makeovers, the design process for the new headquarters began by establishing a strong foundation. Working closely with the client, HOK’s design team infused each floor with the Shiseido tenets of cohesion, transformation and the Japanese hospitality principle of omotenashi.
Omotenashi can be translated as “touching the heart of the guest or customer.” It’s a hospitality principle that forms the basis of Shiseido’s business philosophy.
Architectural expression of omotenashi permeates the New York headquarters and particularly the 19th floor arrivals space and lobby that serves as the heart of Shiseido Americas. This amenities-rich floor includes a café (with barista), large manicured terrace, and a two-story events space and lounge where employees and guests can both socialize and work.
Project Innovation/Need
The new headquarters brings together a dozen Shiseido beauty and cosmetics brands that had been spread across multiple buildings and floors in floors 15 through 22 of the 32-story 390 Madison Avenue. The property was under renovation when Shiseido first eyed the building, and the rehab allowed the design team to create a separate lobby and link several of the floors with double-height spaces and connecting stairs.
To spark employee interaction, several Shiseido brands share floors with common dining and lounge amenities that promote spontaneous connections and collaboration. Each product line also has its own “knuckle” or hub, a kit-of-parts design approach that allows business units to meet company-wide standards while supporting brand culture, customization and flexibility. Shiseido executives share the headquarters’ lowest level floor to diminish the traditional notion of hierarchy.
The idea of transformation inherent to cosmetics guided the office aesthetics. Representations of beauty can be found in the rounded and curved forms, color schemes inspired by makeup palettes and elements of surprise that celebrate the senses.
A reception space, also on the 19th floor, continues the themes of hospitality and beauty with its intimate waiting area, serpentine desk of white Corian and brass, and a wood ceiling installation—reminiscent of a Japanese fan—that appears to radiate energy across the office.
The result is a headquarters that, like Shiseido, celebrates both traditional and contemporary notions of beauty, work and community.
Tags
Interior Design - Corporate & Commercial
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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