Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

Corporate Comback

Leidos brings a visual culture to new headquarters

As companies return to offices, or move into new offices, or new cities, it’s an opportunity to embrace visual communication through video and display technology. That might mean bold imagery in a lobby, or signage throughout common areas, or high-end conferencing screens. After 18 months of improvising at home, the pull of the office must carry a sense of place to overcome the inertia—it’s the digital out-of-home experience, this time for work. AV can not only provide hybrid flexibility and convenience, it can also communicate ambience and culture. Here’s one example.

Upon entering the lobby, visitors are greeted by a striking kaleidoscope created by Artist Davis McCarty that hangs overhead — a symbolic nod to the Leidos name and a visual representation of its workplace planning strategy, which uses symmetrical irregular shapes to bring order and beauty to a rectilinear building. The design captures Leidos’ five brand values — visionary, smart, approachable, authentic, and pragmatic — and gives each an architectural identity.

The 276,000-square-foot space was created in the style of a vertical campus with a series of two-story community hubs designed with slab openings to provide visual connection from floor to floor.

Leidos dedicated 17,000 square feet to amenity space to help them attract and retain talent. The new Leidos headquarters leans heavily on technology and includes an impressive array of visual display technologies from Planar.

According to Schneider, it was important to Leidos that state-of-the-art technology was featured in the new headquarters and used in different ways. “First and foremost, Leidos is a technology company, and they wanted that evident throughout the building,” she said.

During design planning, Gensler’s design team toured several installations in New York City to understand the different types of video wall technologies being used and to make the best selections for the new headquarters.

“The rationale behind the display integrations was to provide a functional way of delivering Leidos’ product and information through large format capacities in the multi-purpose room and boardroom, and to use technology in collaboration areas to atmospherically enhance the staff’s experience,” Schneider said. “For proper viewing, sharpness and pixel count were important. So was a bezel-free content field on the largescale screens so content stood out the best it could.”

John McKinney, Gensler principal and design director, said the display technologies allow Leidos to focus on their “smart” brand value. “The technology creates an ambient backdrop, infusing color, shapes and inspirational quotes,” he said. “One example is the larger-than-life digital totems that fill the pre-function area. Rotating ambient shapes and quotes create slowly, constantly moving content to activate the space. The entire headquarters is a seamless, user-friendly technology experience.”

 

Featured Articles

Close