Vertex | Francis Cauffman

Vertex, a company that develops tax technology solutions for corporations worldwide, previously occupied 7 buildings on 2 campuses in suburban Philadelphia.  While their organizational structure promoted team work through their “work centers”, the staff was segmented by location with few opportunities for coincidental collisions. Through our workplace research a strategy was developed to integrate their needs for focus work along with collaboration and meeting spaces into a 165,000 SF headquarters facility.

Vertex wanted an aesthetic that reflected their collegial and people oriented culture.  It was important that it be friendly and warm with an inviting tone. The design incorporates aspects of wood veneer, distressed woods and precious metals.  Earthy and muted tones set the backdrop for cheerful and crisp accent colors. 

Our design celebrated the complexity and beauty of the Vertex work model with a theme that embraced a faceted polyhedron (a three-dimensional polygon). The main feature wall of the reception area was made up of sliced polyhedrons in three-dimensional projection that coincidentally in geometric terms is called a “vertex figure”.

The slicing and faceting of geometric shapes was a central theme. Shaw’s hexagon carpet tile was used to reinforce the theme.  It was installed in three colorways to create an ombre affect, increasing in value from the perimeter where it is the lightest to the center core where flooring was more pronounced and darker.  The ‘town center’ amenity core repeated the hexagon shape in a tile called Nouveau Esagona by Nemo Tile.  The tile was selected to give the outdoor feeling of cobblestone while accented by outdoor greenery views and an interior green wall feature. 

For this group of highly skilled technology professionals it was important that the design contributed to the attraction of younger employees with a vibrant, open and transparent space without sacrificing the disengagement of highly valued legacy employees.  Good Acoustics and visual shielding was pivotal in the success of the project.  Francis Cauffman worked with Eremos Acousticians and Herman Miller to create a compact and feature rich workstation for over 600 employees.  The stations consist of sit to stand desks with attached screens that provide shielding while working in a standing position and personal storage that creates a “do not disturb” wall if desired.  When our studies revealed a prevalence of introverted workers, the floor plan incorporated a gentle circulation curve. Workstation clusters radiate from it offering shorter sightlines, gradually wider aisles and clustered neighborhoods to insulate the concentrating worker. The resulting design of their new headquarters for 700 employees is a fresh, modern, comfortable and technology rich workplace to support Vertex’s future vision and business goals.