_How Condé Nast International’s London relocation has future-proofed the publisher

In January 2018, Condé Nast International moved just under two miles from a building in London’s Mayfair, to the art deco splendour of The Adelphi building, on the banks of the River Thames.

Despite the small distance travelled, from a real estate and operational perspective the move has propelled the company forward by light years. Indeed, the relocation is a prime example of how corporate real estate decisions can pro-actively address strategic challenges.

At the heart of the project was a multi-disciplinary team of 11, including Knight Frank’s Project Management and Cost Consultancy teams. From inception, the team gave careful consideration to Condé Nast International’s rapidly changing operating environment, incorporating the likely organisational implications of those changes.

Above: The new Condé Nast International office

Completed after 18 months, the project is now delivering tremendous strategic value to the business, in four key ways. First, the relocation has increased the productivity of the organisation. The original Mayfair building was a drain on productivity due to its functional obsolescence.

As Project Lead, Ali Hall notes, “The building created barriers and silos within the business. Circulation throughout the building was extremely difficult and constrained collaboration.

Similarly, the senior leadership team were difficult to access from within the building, which is far from satisfactory when running, and indeed transforming, a business. To take Condé Nast International forwards, these constraints had to be removed".

The new premises could not be more of a contrast. It provides large floor plates, featuring integrated floors within a strong and characterful building.

Second, the project has supported the reengineering of the day-to-day functioning of the business. Ms Hall notes “An important principle for the project was a move away from my space towards our space, to support that much needed mobility and circulation throughout the building. There was also a desire to create multiple task-specific environments within the space, which challenged people to see the workspace as something other than a simple desk.”

As a result, the new space is replete with pod spaces, vibrant breakout zones and a café that sits in the middle of the ‘H’ shaped floor-plate and acts as a logical zone for informal 1-2-1 meetings.

Ms Hall maintains ‘We were keen to activate the building to get the business functioning differently.  We paid particular attention to the provision of informal and formal meeting rooms and a design that allowed staff to change their scenery without leaving the building.’

A masterstroke in this respect was the development of a large eighth floor quiet lounge, which provides employees with a mix of soft furnishings to support thinking and contemplation, alongside inspiring and spectacular panoramas of the Thames.

Similarly, there is the space known as ‘The Well’ which sits around the central stair core of the space and provides bleacher-style seating for town-hall meetings or social events, as well as further informal meeting space. Ms Hall has no doubt; “It is the social areas that make the building and are the key to driving its productivity.”

Third, the relocation has supported the fundamental restructuring of the business in response to the challenges of digital technology. As building options were being considered, Condé Nast International decided to centre its global digital expertise in London, thus adding a further 100 seats to the requirement.

This meant that a new demographic and skill profile was being brought into the building and one which, given its global remit, was required to collaborate with colleagues around the world.

What was required was a building that blended those working for a traditional luxury brand with a fresh, digital, agile and disruptive workforce.

In essence, the workplace needed to be a blend of ‘luxury hotel vs digital warehouse’. The Adelphi building was perfect in this respect with the combination of grandeur, large floorplates and distinctive pillars providing a canvas through which to provide an appropriate environment for all types of employee.

Crucially, everyone in the building, including leadership, are visible thus bringing transparency to the transformation of the business and top-level support of the cultural and workstyle changes it requires.

Finally, for the publisher of Vogue, image is clearly everything. The company’s previous building was hugely misaligned to its up-market brand image.

The Adelphi building allowed Condé Nast to strike a pose through external façade and internal fit-out. But, make no mistake, this was no vanity project.

Instead, it actively supports the business change required for Condé Nast’s digital output to build on the strong standing of its traditional, physical products.

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