Sustainable Design Reigns Supreme at the Adidas HQ

2023 Best of Year Winner for Environmental Impact

Sustainability is embedded in the sporty scheme for Adidas’s expanded North American headquarters. Green roofs, adaptable layouts, and repurposed or renewable materials reduce the carbon footprint while expressing the brand’s values. In the two new buildings by Lever Architecture, totaling nearly 300,000 square feet, structures of precast concrete, glulam beams, and CLT panels create warm, spacious interiors that Interior Design Hall of Famer Primo Orpilla and his O+A team devised to evoke athletic stadiums, with an eye toward the planet. Reclaimed basketball court flooring, for instance, became a conference table; fabric-wrapped acoustic panels are made of excess textiles from Adidas products. Elsewhere, dining tables are crafted of wood from trees felled during construction, and art installations incorporate recycled-content yarn. Among O+A’s environmental graphics are a staircase’s chevron stripes derived from sneaker sole patterns.

Studio O+A: primo orpilla; lisa bieringer; mindi weichman; elizabeth vereker; chase lunt; lauren perich; sean houghton; alex pokas; lauren harrison; marbel padilla; kaylen parker; chelsea hedrick; sarah hotchin.

Lever Architecture: thomas robinson; doug sheets; dannon canterbury; chris grosse; george-michael rusch; katie o’connell; kevin lee; alexa cano.