TIAA Frisco Corporate Center
Project Stats
- Location
Frisco, Texas
- Size
444,800
- Market
- Expertise
Brand + Graphics
Climate, Sustainability & Wellness
Furniture Strategy
Interior Design
New Innovative Office
TIAA, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, manages assets for approximately 4.7 million people and 12,000 institutional clients, mainly nonprofits and universities. The company tapped Corgan to design a new, state-of-the-art corporate center in Frisco, Texas, that would provide a platform for its evolving workforce and future growth.
TIAA’s innovative new office building stands as a beacon of its corporate commitments to a sustainable and equitable future. Through its strategic design partnership, artwork and furniture selection, and a focus on neurodiverse space design, the 15-story, 444,800 square-foot office is designed to align with its dedication to carbon neutrality, education, and the future of work.
TIAA had freshly developed workplace standards and engaged Corgan's workplace strategy team to implement these standards at its new 2,500-seat campus in Frisco. To meet its vision of creating a modern, inviting work environment, Corgan developed a universal neighborhood strategy for the workplace floors. Workstation zones are sized intentionally to balance acoustics and buffered by areas for private and collaborative work. Within a typical floor, workers are provided options for individual and group work, each providing unique experiences by varying light levels, privacy, and acoustics.
The overall workplace strategy focuses on bringing a balanced mixture of in-person collaborative, heads down, and small, medium, and large training spaces on each floor that suit all types of work and workers. Through intentional space planning, the team brought access to natural light and quality views to the majority of seats. There is also a strong emphasis on the virtual experience for connecting through video conferencing between the Frisco Corporate Center and other office locations.
Corgan also conducted meetings with individual departments to identify unique business needs that the standard workspace might not accommodate. This led to the creation of new workspace typologies for groups with specialized requirements, such as client experience centers and spaces for product development teams with agile workstyles. The workspaces include open and private team-based zones as well as individual spaces for deep focus. A variety of client engagement spaces were included to support individual user research, co-creation events, and an elevated hospitality experience for large client presentations.
Emphasis on Experience
In alignment with TIAA’s goal to put its people at the center of everything, Corgan developed an amenities program that supports its hybrid workforce, including an entire amenity floor. There are amenity spaces including an outdoor amphitheater, putting green, pickle ball, sports simulator, electronic gaming, billiards, and shuffleboard to support re-focusing and team building. The office also features a plethora of features that enhance the experience and wellbeing of all users, such as a large-scale dining hall, full-sized fitness center, medical clinic and pharmacy, balconies on each floor, outdoor meeting spaces, and walking paths.
The design team maximized space planning to create multifaceted spaces, like a large flexible auditorium surrounded by a wraparound balcony and a 4K video wall for an immersive experience. Additionally, through efficient planning, the team was able to accommodate a full-service fitness space, including group exercise areas, state-of-the-art equipment and locker room restrooms. Intentional acoustical separation allows a variety of space types to coexist in smaller areas, enhancing the employee’s experience while enabling them to best serve their clients.
A recording studio and a destination conference center facilitate elevated internal communications, office-wide video programming, and large all-hands meetings. The office’s Get Tech Bar and IT Build Lab are people-focused amenities that facilitate fast, effective tech support, aligning with TIAA’s principle of boosting individual effectiveness. In the same vein, all employee floors include library spaces with individual built-in study carrels that provide respite for quiet, focused work.
Design Concept: Texas Terrain
With a clean slate, TIAA was able to dream big in its new space. The impressive double volume main lobby boasts a curved 46-foot LED video wall, providing guests with a wow-moment upon entering the building. The design follows a regional-centric Texas trails concept, with the 15 floors broken into three design concepts based on Texas’s topography from its low, middle, and high elevation zones. With a color palette of verdant greens and muted browns, floors three through six are inspired by the ethereal atmosphere of the piney woods and swamps in Texas’ lowlands. The concept of organic discovery serves as inspiration for floors 7 through 11, with a palette of bold blues and warm browns that evoke the springs, waterfalls, and caverns found in the Hill Country. Floors 12 through 15 take inspiration from the extreme shifts seen in Texas’s High Plains and Trans-Pecos regions. Here, the palette shifts to the saturated oranges, purples, and navy blues found in a dessert sunset while the overarching design concept honors the monumental scale of the west Texas landscape. With this cascading, evolving palette, the design team was able to use the verticality of the campus to its fullest extent, providing inspiration and variety as users move upwards inside the building.
This conceptual regional beauty and artful playfulness is applied throughout the space, bringing delight to the forefront. Plantings, including massive green walls, were chosen to reflect the flora of the regionally conscientious design. In addition to plantings, biophilic elements are incorporated through textures, images, and views of nature throughout. The value of community engagement is showcased in the art program, with more than 90 pieces of interior art, exterior sculpture, and murals from local, diverse artists. Employees are provided tours and art education through QR code signage at each piece.
These precise details are an echo of TIAA’s people-centric organizational model. A variety of design surprises — like the interactive artist experiences, regionally inspired plantings, handsfree doors, custom curved millwork, and carefully selected accessories — are interspersed throughout to delight employees and guests. The combination of big wow moments and attention to the tiniest details lets visitors know that the space was well planned from top to bottom.
Furniture for All
TIAA’s aim to boost individual effectiveness is seen in inclusivity for seating for all sizes, ergonomic furniture and adjustable workstations to support comfort and health. The furniture strategy includes desks that facilitate privacy at workstations while still allowing natural light to flow through the space. Corgan created a mockup of the workstation and private office and conducted a sit test which allowed end users to provide crucial feedback before the furniture selection was finalized.
Design for neurodiversity is also implemented with the variety of private individual spaces on each floor as well as the serene retreat area for introverts to enjoy near the large community area on the ninth floor. The latest technology is integrated into meeting room tables to support seamless video conferencing. Beyond its function and ease, the furniture was chosen to reinforce the cascading color story of the Texas trails design concept.
Details That Work for Work
Technology enables employees to take center stage with an auditorium designed to hold 300 people. The auditorium, located on the second floor, includes a large wraparound balcony with presentation capabilities on another 40-foot LED video wall. The video wall, supplemental screens and theatrical lighting are controlled by two separate tech booths. An adjacent guest check-in, pre-function area, green room, and prep kitchen enhance the use and flexibility of the auditorium space.
On a smaller scale, employees’ day-to-day experience is bolstered with an advanced video conference experience, with specific focus on skin tone diversity rendering, increased conference room automation, color temperature flexibility, and scene setting. Music and white noise are strategically placed throughout the building, restrooms, and balconies to create a contiguous sense of community. In addition to function, the lighting and acoustical goals for each space were designed for comfort and flexibility, with lower levels of lighting in individual privacy and focus areas to promote calm.
Setting the Standard for Sustainability
This cutting-edge facility embodies TIAA’s mission to foster positive change, promote culture and community, and demonstrate excellence in eco-conscious design. After initially aiming for a LEED Gold certification, TIAA is now targeting LEED Platinum for Interior Design & Construction: Commercial Interiors as well as a 37% reduction in embodied carbon, setting a remarkable standard for sustainable design and operation.
The all-electric facility uses 100% renewable generated electricity, with an 825 kW solar panel system that will provide 20% of the site’s electricity needs. The project is designed to use 32% less energy than code requirements while water fixtures provide a 45% reduction in water use over the LEED baseline requirements. Office spaces are constructed with raised flooring, demountable walls, as well as reconfigurable furniture to reduce waste for future remodels. The same principle of multitasking was used in the lighting selection: the fixtures have multiple settings and abilities, including embedded speakers, eliminating the need for two separate fixtures and facilitating a clearer, more seamless ceiling design.
To encourage both sustainability and wellness, a number of human-centric elements were added, including water bottle fillers and dishwashers on each floor to reduce single-use items, a campus-wide recycling and composting program with compostable to-go containers and utensils, and stairwells with motivational and educational graphics to encourage movement. To promote sustainable biodiversity, the parking garage houses rooftop beehives.
