CRE Close-Up: Take a Video Tour of This Office In a Renovated Printing Press

Architect Yolanda Cole had her eye on a corner brick building in Washington, D.C.’s developing Union Market neighborhood for 10 years. Even when it was a self-storage facility, she could envision the century-old, former printing press as the perfect office for her architecture firm, Hickok Cole.

After looking at the building three separate times over the decade, circumstances finally aligned for the company to make the move across town from the office it had rented in Georgetown for 20 years.

The firm’s new home is an industrial-to-office conversion that celebrates the circa 1930-building’s creative history, iconic architecture and industrial details, while creating a workspace that perfectly fits the firm’s goal to drive creativity, collaboration and innovation.

In this exclusive video (presented above), Hickok Cole and LoopNet take you on a tour of the 26,000-square-foot office, offering an inside look at the design process, renovation and buildout.

Originally built in the 1930s as the National Capital Press building, the top floor of the 100-year-old structure that once whirred with machinery churning out congressional records for the government now buzzes with the energy of the firm’s main workspace. Hickok Cole was attracted to the building for its brick façade and other gritty industrial details that the firm said aligned with its creative vibe.

“We looked at the history of the building and the way it had been used in a creative capacity, but it had become a self-storage facility before we occupied it,” said Randall Stogsdill, associate at Hickok Cole who led the buildout. “So, we were really trying to bring that creative energy back into this project.”

The firm was also drawn to the neighborhood, trading the established and upscale Georgetown market for the still-developing NoMa/Union Market area, where industrial conversions and new multifamily (such as the adjacent Press House apartment building, which takes its name from the printing press), retail and restaurant developments are rapidly rising. This shift not only underscores the firm's connection to the creative energy of the area but also serves as a real-life example of what is commercial real estate, which encompasses office spaces, industrial buildings, and multifamily residences, all key components of a thriving urban landscape.

“During [the 20 years we were in Georgetown], the energy of the city had moved eastward, and we kept seeing that more building and development was moving in this direction. And so was the talent pool that would be part of our future staff,” said Cole, the firm’s senior principal and co-founder. “So, we were really fascinated by the area and the opportunity to be on the edge of development as it was coming into place.”

Plus, not only was Hickok Cole outgrowing its previous office after two decades and a growing employee headcount that was approaching 100 people, but the firm’s employees were separated across four different floors in the Georgetown building. That was the primary driver for why the company needed a new office — one that would bring the entire firm together on one floor to easily interact, collaborate and share ideas and inspirations.

The company's work had "changed dramatically over the years from [teams] being focused in different market sectors — we had the office people, the multifamily people, the corporate interiors people — to our work being focused on mixed-use [projects],” said Cole. “Our work was starting to blend together more in the marketplace, yet our teams were still siloed by sector, so that was really getting in the way.”

Concentrating the workspaces on the same floor allows teams to not just physically interact much more often than they did previously, but also showcase their work. Project boards line the perimeter of the core desk space displaying project renderings that teams across the firm are working on at any given time.

“There are a lot of different projects happening at different scales and typologies, and people aren't always involved with every one of those,” said Stogsdill. “By putting those up on the wall, you can really get an idea of what’s happening on a daily basis — it makes everyone more aware of all of the work that the firm is doing outside of the particular project or studio that you might be in.”

Hickok Cole also believes that its clients are “part of the process,” and wanted to make them feel like they were getting a behind-the-scenes look at how the firm works. When a visitor enters the office, they’re greeted by a full-wall mural designed by the in-house creative team (who snuck the brand’s logo into the design). “We felt like the mural is part of the artsy vibe of our culture and of the Noma/Union market neighborhood, which is full of murals and graffiti,” said Cole. “It’s our way of tagging the space, if you will.”

Visitors are then taken down the central staircase that leads to the hospitality-focused lower level for meetings — but not before they get a peek through the partition walls of the firm at work in the central studio.

“In our old office, visiting clients were largely isolated to the bottom floor where we had our conference space. It didn’t create the environment that we wanted, which is one where we invite our clients to [be involved], see what's going on, and feel the energy of the studio,” said Stogsdill. “Our clients are as much a part of the projects as we are, so we want them to feel the work isn't happening behind the scenes. When you come in for a meeting, you see models, materials and work that’s up on the wall. We’re giving you a glimpse at our process and inviting you to participate.”

Getting everyone on one floor was a functional workflow choice, but it was also determined by the architecture of the building. The most compelling feature of the building was — and remains — the skylights in the sawtooth roof that, in essence, create a glass ceiling flooding the floor with natural light.

“It was pretty obvious that the wonderful, skylit, big-volume space was where the studio needed to be, and that's where the people want to be,” said Cole. “So, all desks are concentrated there in the core.”

Surrounding the individual desk banks along the exterior edges of the first floor are small breakout rooms for meetings and conversations, one- and two-person phone booths, lounge furniture, a VR headset nook for viewing 3D renderings, and the building’s very few private offices.

“The organizational driver here was really informed by the architecture. We wanted to keep the center zone where the skylights are as open as possible [for the workspaces] and use the two side wings to tuck in the [rest of the uses],” said Stogsdill.

The building is LEED Gold-certified, and in order not to block the ceiling skylights, “we had to make the mechanical almost invisible,” said Stogsdill. The building’s high-volume ceiling would typically require a separate mechanical system just to keep frost build up off the skylights’ glass, which is where the 14-foot diameter fans come in.

“We wanted the mechanical to more or less disappear, so the fans are actually helping to move the hot and cold air around and keep it recirculating so that we didn't have to introduce a baseboard heater along the glass, which would've been clunky and taken away from the clean, minimal aesthetic that we were trying to get in this space," Stogsdill explained.

The column-free top floor offered an uninterrupted footprint for the flexible workspaces. The lower floor was better optimized for a hospitality focus, with its larger meeting and conference rooms, the large pantry kitchen for lunch and socializing, and other nooks tucked in between original concrete mushroom columns spaced out about every 20 feet.

The large kitchen with banquette seating opens to a terrace that employees can use during the day.

“The way the pantry area is positioned makes it act as a destination. It’s remote from upstairs and has a different feel, so I think people feel invited to come down and eat lunch instead of being at their desks,” said Stogsdill. “Way more people use the kitchen space here than they did in our old office because it feels separate from upstairs. It doesn’t feel like you're still in the office; it feels like you’ve stepped away to take a real break.”

The lower level also has two key workstations for the architecture firm — the model shop and the materials library. Architects can construct 3D models of their projects, and the shop features a laser cutter, woodworking tools and a spray paint booth. “We use all of those to prototype and build things, both in the design process, and then sometimes afterwards to have smaller models of projects,” said Stogsdill.

The materials library houses all of the firm’s samples, and special lighting controls allow the designers to view color palettes and finishes under specific lighting for different types of projects. Base building projects, for example, require that materials be viewed in natural daylight, while a residential or hospitality interior project will need finishes that work with warm, lower lighting temperatures.

Every fall, Hickok Cole holds its biggest event of the year, Art Night, and the new office had to accommodate this annual fundraiser for Washington Project for the Arts (WPA). For one night, the firm takes down everything from its walls and creates a gallery with pieces from local artists for sale. They built custom hangers and hooks into the project walls from the get-go in order to easily put up and change out pieces for the event.

“We have been hosting this for 20 years, and in one night we try to sell as much art as we can,” said Cole. ”Last year, we sold about $150,000 and have raised over $1 million total. When it came to our new office, we wanted to design it with that in mind. All of the pinup walls were designed with lighting and hanging devices integrated into them, so it’s easy for us to just come in, put up the art and take it down when the party is over.”

In designing workspace, said Cole, the office should “relate to the character, quality and nature of the business, and you want it to fit the people that work there. This is our space and this is who we are,” she said. And creating that custom space has paid off not only in the day-to-day for the firm’s employees, but for Hickok Cole’s business as well.

“I believe when clients come to see our space, it's really a demonstration of our ability to do great design. And that's one of our goals in designing any office space,” Cole said. “So, it really has made a difference, not just in clients and their understanding of our talents, but also in recruiting staff to come to the firm.”