Even while news reports about diminishing offices continue to garner attention, two of Philadelphia’s most prominent law firms are reinvesting in their physical workspaces. They’re doing so with a fresh perspective on how the office contributes to the firm’s success.
MORGAN LEWIS: FLEXING NEW MUSCLES
Founded in Philadelphia 150 years ago, Morgan Lewis is a top-10 American law practice that recently relocated to 2222 Market Street. The structure is Philadelphia’s first new office skyscraper since LF Driscoll constructed the Comcast Technology Center in 2017. The 19-story, 305,000-square-foot Market Street facility, furnished by Structure Tone Philadelphia, marks a new era for the company by fusing the freedom that now defines workplace culture with the strength of face-to-face communication. Valerie Pearce, chief real estate operations officer at Morgan Lewis, stated, “We’re aiming to future-proof by making the space as flexible as feasible.” “We want to make it a collaborative and positive experience for all employees.”
Although there are still a lot of private offices, there are open work areas and collaboration spaces on several floors, and the 16th floor is a dedicated coworking floor for employees who don’t need assigned addresses and for visitors from the firm’s other 32 offices. New amenities, such as a full kitchen, servery, and dining spaces, as well as a larger fitness center with locker rooms, showers, and a studio classroom, create a variety of places for people to meet, think, and get inspired. However, a project of that size and scope came with some difficulties.
Core-and-shell completion. “We were limited to where we could start work on floors where they still were storing materials they needed for completion, and we couldn’t integrate any systems with the building until coordination was done and worked out in the field,” says Rocco Novellino, Structure Tone project manager, “so that everyone could complete their work with the least impact.” The core and shell builders were still working on the building when the Structure Tone team started the interior fit-out.
Sound control. The Structure Tone project team has perfected the art of privacy, which is one of the top priorities for every law firm’s workplace. According to Novellino, “the demising walls and office fronts from office to office must be sealed so there are no voids to restrict any sound transmission.” “It’s essential for the day-to-day operations of law firms.”
Floors. The Structure Tone team had to perform extensive floor preparation on each level to accommodate the design’s specific nuances. Conference room floors, for example, were mainly stone, where certain characteristics required to fit with the grout seams. The first trade on the floor would have to be the tile installation, then the wall layouts. Novellino claims that a large portion of the design arrangement was determined by the tile layout. “The nuances were crucial, even for a project of large.”
TROUTMAN PEPPER: MODERN MOTION
Troutman Pepper has similar goals for the renovations they have begun in their Philadelphia offices at 2 Logan Square. The firm is reinventing their workplace with the modern aesthetic and flexible options that today’s employees expect. They hired their own client—LF Driscoll—to fit out the 15,000sf construction law department floor as a pilot.
The LFD team removed the cubicle system and some private offices to create a more open workspace. They also added collaboration rooms with DIIRT partitions, which allow for future flexibility. In addition, the team upgraded all of the finishes and created a large lounge and entertaining area near the entrance to add a “wow” factor for both visitors and employees.
“Combining our healthcare standard operating procedures on things like sound control, dust mitigation, and utility coordination with the high-end finishes of a law firm office was really interesting,” says LF Driscoll project manager John Mazzochette. While at a different scale, the project shared similar challenges with the Morgan Lewis effort, including:
Sharing the space. Troutman Pepper occupied the adjacent floors. This allowed the LF Driscoll team to communicate regularly with them, coordinating work step by step to keep disruptions minimal.
Floors. The biggest challenge, says LFD superintendent Ray Kirby, was managing the added surprise of an extremely off-level slab. “We were upgrading the floor to hardwood from their previous carpet and tile. Natural wood has a much higher flatness requirement than carpet. We had very tight parameters—just a quarter of an inch—for leveling the floor and staying on schedule. But we made it work.”
MAKING THEIR MARK
Both firms are now proudly working from their new and improved offices. The impact is clear to anyone walking through the space. “In the final weeks of completion, the regional office manager would walk up to us, smile, and hold her heart,” says Kirby. “It’s really satisfying.” For Morgan Lewis, the prominent new location reinforces their role in the Philadelphia business community. Structure Tone even collaborated with them to incorporate a high-end Lutron lighting system. It enables exterior light displays for holidays, sporting events, and other observances. “The Morgan Lewis team was so great to work with,” says Novellino. “They understood the challenges of a big job like this. They valued our team approach with them, the architect, and their consultants. That really made all the difference.”
