WPP Detroit

WPP’s Campus in Detroit is a key part of the company’s commitment to reinvesting in the city, which is home to some of its most valued clients. Based in the iconic Marquette Building, the campus spans approximately 130,000 sq ft over nine floors, uniting over 1,000 employees across a broad range of WPP’s creative specialisms.

The heritage of Detroit, as well as of the Marquette building itself, largely influenced BDG’s concept for the interior. During the renovation, the building was re-envisioned and much of the construction’s original steel piers, brick columns, windows, mosaic and concrete floors were left in place, as well as the building’s original sliding barn doors. Responding to BDG’s sensitivity to the building’s local setting and context, we worked with the team to select furniture from American manufacturers to feature throughout the workspace alongside carefully considered contemporary European brands, while ensuring all items complied with Leed 'Gold' standards.

A key ambition for WPP’s campus transformation strategy is to create more intelligent, collaborative and flexible workspaces. As such, flexibility was an essential element in BDG’s design for the Detroit workspace, allowing WPP’s people the freedom to work across a variety of settings and its teams to customise spaces to suit changing needs. When developing the furniture specification, we collaborated closely with BDG’s team to balance the practical needs of varying work settings with the project’s aesthetic aspirations, ensuring that all the finishes worked together seamlessly.

Part of WPP’s approach to developing smart, sustainable workspaces is to reuse as much existing furniture from other WPP locations as possible. This process was managed by TFP’s team, who assessed existing items for their suitability for the Detroit scheme.