Gensler Spotlight: Northwest U.S.

T-Mobile’s vibrant U.S. headquarters has all the hallmarks of the post-pandemic office: hot-desking, flexible collaboration rooms, natural vent­ilation, outdoor meeting areas. Yet Gensler Seattle designed it before anyone had even heard of COVID-19. Beginning in 2017, the firm explored how to translate the brand and its culture into a renovated five-building, 1-million-square-foot campus, estimated to be fully completed next year. “T-Mobile’s function is to connect everyone and make it easy to be totally mobile,” design principal and studio director Susana Covarrubias explains. “We brought those concepts to the workplace: Employees are not plugged to their desks—they can be anywhere.”

One of the five structures, the 144,995-square-foot Building 2, has recently opened, wholly embodying the lively company culture. Not only does T-Mobile’s trademark magenta appear throughout but two of its six floors are also devoted to amenities, providing myriad spaces for the 6,030 employees to gather: weathered-oak auditorium seating, an Airstream trailer serving frozen yogurt, a pub that opens onto a large balcony with fire pits. One of the two new bridges connecting to the other buildings double-functions as a lounge, its tiered platforms outfitted with comfortable seating; shared spaces on either end form what Covarrubias calls an “amenity street,” encouraging movement across the Fitwel–certified campus. Proof that the project is totally dialed in: T-Mobile staffers have been painting their fingernails and dying their hair pink.

Gensler: Ryan Haines; Jacob Simons; Susana Covarrubias; Anneke Hagen; Andy Su; Asami Tachikawa Choe; Lewis Chu; Julia Horner; Barry Zimmerman; Krista Reeder