The tenant improvement project for Macmillan Learning’s 32,000-square-foot office in Austin, Texas supports their goal to cultivate knowledge sharing among customers and team members alike. A publishing company that develops digital tools for the education industry, their mission is to enrich lives through learning.
To meld the team’s innovative, technical culture with a collegiate ethos, the workplace is highly functional and well-organized to nurture processes essential to creating learning tools. Simple forms and a primarily earth-toned palette with pops of color create warmth, while custom-milled bookshelves are used as focal points throughout the space. Areas for collaboration, focus, and celebration are incorporated to reinforce the unity and synergy of Macmillan’s diverse talent.
Photo credit: Chase Daniel
Design challenge and solution
The large training room and break room are on the second floor above another tenant, which meant the team needed to come up with a structural reinforcement solution without impacting the space below. The solution was to reinforce the training room from above rather than the floor below. The team secured the beams to the slab concrete floor instead of putting steel around the beams in the floor below.
Photo credit: Chase Daniel
Additionally, to make these large spaces very flexible, the rooms can be divided by the aluminum and glass partitions to create two large rooms, separating the training room from the break room, or three rooms with the training room divided in half. The Modernfold Acousti-Clear partition has a high STC (Sound Transmission Class) to help absorb sound. In addition, Cushing Terrell provided the custom millwork for the bookshelves.
Project Team
Architecture: Cushing Terrell
Interior Design: Cushing Terrell
Contractor: Turner Construction Company
Construction Manager: Colliers / Danny Harrington
Structural Engineer: Cushing Terrell
Mechanical Engineer: Cushing Terrell
Electrical Engineer: Cushing Terrell
Lighting: Cushing Terrell
Art Consultant: Metropolitan Gallery
Cushing Terrell Team
Jessica Kwiatkowski (Project Manager), Sarah Shearer (Architecture), David Remerscheid and Puru Shah (Electrical Engineering), Grace Kirby (Interior Design), Mark Sislen (Mechanical Engineering), and Brandon Besser (Structural Engineering).
Photography
Chase Daniel
Products
CBI (chairs and workstations), SKG (ancillary furniture)
Shaw Industries Group (carpet and Inlet luxury vinyl tile)
TRI-KES (wood veneer wallcovering)
Nordgröna (Pixel Scandinavian Reindeer Moss)
Modernfold Acousti-Clear partition (movable, aluminum and glass wall partition)
