After being housed for many years in a three-story 1911 mansion on Clifton Avenue near downtown Minneapolis, the growing company decided it was time to find space better suited to their business operations.
The first challenge was determining how many square feet of conventional office space they needed since the nontraditional nature of their mansion space did not provide a reliable benchmark. (For example, the trading staff were crowded into what had originally been a dining room.) Ellerbe Becket developed a quantitative space program, based on our expertise on appropriate workspace sizes common in similar businesses. We concluded that in relocating to a modern office building The Clifton Group could increase their staff by 50% while keeping their square footage essentially the same.
The primary qualitative space objective was to provide updated functionality and technology without losing the firm’s original and unique Clifton Avenue identity. Designers carried the mansion’s residential character into the new space through a design that supported The Clifton Group’s desire for an aesthetic that evokes a warm, accessible, Midwestern, “family” environment.
