Designed by Woods Bagot, the stylish three-level heritage office in Sydney finished ahead of a strong field to win the Corporate Space Large category at the 14^th IIDA Global Excellence Awards in Chicago this week.

“We laud these design teams for their ability to create inspiring, ingenuitive physical canvases for the world to experience,” said IIDA Executive Vice President and CEO, Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. FIIDA.

It is the third major award for the M&C Saatchi Group’s new workspace in the past month.

The project won Best Large Workplace at the World Festival of Interiors two weeks ago and was awarded Gold at the World Interiors News Awards in mid-November.

Uniting all award juries was an appreciation for the artful integration and elevation of the building’s Art Deco heritage with the demands of the modern workplace.

For M&C Saatchi Group, a long-term tenant of the building at 99 Macquarie St, the motivation was to unite its multiple creative brands in the one workspace.

The company embraced hybrid work through COVID-19 and saw an opportunity to consolidate its office footprint across 3400 sqm while ensuring the new workplace met dramatically recalibrated user demands and expectations.

Key work included repositioning the building core, adding two new internal staircases linking teams across all three floors, creating a dedicated building entry, increasing collaboration space, incorporating a destination café, flexible work areas and quiet areas.

“Woods Bagot has created a space that allows us to better connect with the big ambitions of our clients, our people and the industry we are part of,” said Justin Graham, M&C Saatchi Group CEO for Australia and New Zealand.

“It allows us to inspire, create and collaborate in a cutting-edge environment. It is a critical step forward as the business evolves.”

Project Leader Jordan Schumacher said the redesign drew on the history of Transport House, completed in 1938.

“It’s a story of origins, modernity and a celebration of character,” Schumacher said. “The design outcome uses opposing ideas to create different spaces and experiences derived from stories of the past shaping stories of the future.”

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Martin Kelly
Content and Communications Leader (Australia & NZ)