Waterfront Workplace
Expedia Group, Seattle Headquarters
Workplace, Adaptive Reuse
When visitors step foot inside Expedia Group’s Seattle headquarters, there’s a distinct sense of leaving one world behind and arriving someplace new. The 40-acre waterfront site is more than a corporate campus—it’s a destination built upon the very notion of travel. Inspired by the site’s rich history as a former biotech hub, ZGF devised a campus master plan that breathes new life into the architecture, restores the landscape to its natural beauty, and crafts an immersive experience around Expedia’s mission to bring the world within reach.
Location
Seattle, WA
Square Feet
950,000
Completion date
June 2021
Project Component
Campus Master Planning
Architecture Services & Portfolio
Interior Design & Space Planning
Certifications
LEED Gold
Salmon Safe
SITES v2 Gold
A scaled approach to the campus entry sets the stage for a grand arrival, establishing the urban campus’ setting within the distinctly Pacific Northwest landscape.
The 950,000 SF renovation and expansion reimagines an existing biotech campus into a series of modern workspaces that connect from inside to outside, building to building, and team to team.
A dynamic water feature creates a bridge from the landscape to the interior, from front porch to back porch, symbolic of embarking on a new adventure.
The lobby reinforces this dramatic sense of arrival, where many paths simultaneously converge and take off.
With the main pedestrian thoroughfare running along level two, the ground floor is kept open as a meeting place.
Transparency into and through the lobby fosters a sense of anticipation and discovery of what’s ahead—from the workplace, to the site, to the landscape beyond.
AHEAD OF THE CURVE
While the campus was always designed to be flexible, no one could have predicted how well-positioned it would be for the future of hybrid work. It offers what employees can’t get at home: acres of lush green space, panoramic views, social amenities, and workspaces that foster purposeful connection. With plenty of choices and no assigned seating, employees can find the environment that empowers their best work.
ZGF transformed three existing lab buildings into 600,000 SF of open office that blurs the lines between hyper-focused and hyper-collaborative programming.
A new 350,000 SF addition creates an architectural statement to eventually accommodate up to 6,500 employees campuswide, with views of downtown Seattle, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, and the Olympics.
The heart of campus is where old meets new: a daylit atrium that serves as a dining area and flexible meeting space for all-hands, quarterly earnings, fireside chats, and guest speakers.
Off the atrium, a 600-seat market hall offers globally inspired cuisine from morning to night.
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
Without any private offices or assigned seating, the workplace design breaks down traditional hierarchies to create parity across buildings and teams. Groups are organized into neighborhoods with a variety of collaboration spaces, hoteling, individual focus rooms, and large common areas that bring people together. The diversity of space and choice allows employees to experience work from anywhere at Expedia’s campus in a meaningful way.
“We asked, how do we engage everyone on campus and give them a sense of each other and the greater whole?”
– Patrick Gordon, Principal, ZGF
Warm and inviting interiors create a hospitality-infused environment worthy of the commute. Social points throughout campus each have their own personality, featuring soft lighting, rich textures, and playful pops of color.
Connecting bridges encourage circulation between buildings, but they also boast some of the best views on campus.
Operable sliding glass doors offer uninterrupted views of the Puget Sound and interior courtyards when weather permits.
High ceilings and exposed concrete pay homage to the former lab facilities, with extensive glazing to maximize daylight and views year-round.
Double-height spaces allow natural light to flow through the workplace.
Bespoke artwork adds intrigue to each building while aiding in wayfinding.
Five largescale murals designed by Ethan Murrow are hand painted directly on the walls.
ONE WITH NATURE
Expedia’s sensitive treatment of the site and existing buildings reflects its deep commitment to stewardship, sustainability, health and wellbeing. Highly activated outdoor spaces on the waterfront setting are a hallmark of the campus experience, with walking and biking trails, beach access, tree groves, lush courtyards, a play field, amphitheater, and robust Wi-Fi infrastructure down to the shoreline. The interiors emphasizes wellness with abundant daylight, connecting bridges, views to nature, an onsite health clinic, fitness center, and locker facilities for self-propelled commuters.
CENTRAL ENERGY
The original 1997 campus featured a steam-based central heating plant, chilled water plant, and laboratory systems for air distribution and space conditioning. The renovation re-used much of the original architectural and central utility plant frameworks, but replaced, enhanced, and added envelope and MEP systems to meet the new building programming and project performance goals. The upgraded central utility plant supplies chilled water and heating water via a primary-secondary configuration to hydronic coils across the campus. The existing steam boiler plant was removed and replaced with a mix of air-to-water heat pumps, heat recovery chillers, and high-efficiency gas fired condensing boilers. The heat recovery chiller provides simultaneous heating and cooling when possible to maximize energy efficiency and carbon reduction. Chilled water is provided by two existing upgraded chillers and a newly added third chiller. Cooling towers were also refurbished to minimize water use and chemical requirements.
For decades, much of the existing site was paved over for industrial uses. Surfacedesign, Inc. restored the landscape with native, climate-appropriate plantings and rehabilitated the beach for public use.
On a civic scale, the project connects to the ongoing transformation of the Seattle waterfront as well as the Elliott Bay Connections initiative. Together with these projects, the Expedia Group campus connects 3.5 miles of publicly accessible shoreline and green space from Seattle’s Stadium District at the south to The Beach at Expedia Group at the north, via public and private endeavors to revitalize Elliott Bay.
Aidlin Darling Design created The Prow, extending the workplace to the outdoors as a retreat from the day-to-day offices.
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