ebay b17 and the workplace initiative valerio dewalt train

EBAY B17 AND THE WORKPLACE INITIATIVE
VALERIO DEWALT TRAIN
EBAY B17 AND THE WORKPLACE INITIATIVE
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
VALERIO DEWALT TRAIN ASSOCIATES
500 North Dearborn
Chicago, Illinois 60654
424 Waverley Street
Palo Alto, California 94301
EBAY V1 Photography
© Jay Graham, Graham Photography
EBAY V2 Photography
© Steve Hall, Hedrich Blessing
EBAY V3 Photography
© David Wakely Photography
© 2011 Valerio Dewalt Train Associates
WHAT’S INSIDE
INTRODUCTION
OUR APPROACH
VERSION 1
B17 VERSION 3
VDTA Office in Chicago, Il.
INTRODUCTION
Valerio Dewalt Train is a 50 person national architectural
practice with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Palo Alto, California.
Since 1996, the firm has based its practice on the simple idea
that whatever the question, design is the answer. But we also
believe that before you can provide an answer, you have to do the
research to make sure you understand the question.
As designers, we take a research-based approach to the design
process; it is immersive, probing, and specific. We work with a
wide range of clients: institutional, educational, corporate, retail,
entertainment, hospitality, and developers, each client benefits
from the cross-fertilization of ideas between these industries
and as expressed by our URL, “build or die.com”.
The result of our energetic approach is a series of remarkable
projects often produced on very tight budgets and schedules
for many notable organizations; from eBay, to the Kresge
Foundation, the University of Chicago, and Lincoln Properties.
OUR APPROACH
Working on many levels the design
team led the efforts to put in place
entitlements for ten new buildings
and 6,000 structured parking spaces.
Campus Master plan, created by VDTA
MASTERPLANNING
“eBay is the Walmart of the internet.” Meg Whitman, CEO
Although true, this statement says less about eBay’s mission
and more about Meg Whitman’s approach to management. eBay
would innovate, change and grow quietly. The company would
focus significant energy on making eBay a great workplace.
B17, the recently completed building on the First Street Campus
in San Jose was a milestone in the development of the workplace
at eBay.
The story began in 2003 when Valerio Dewalt Train was retained
to masterplan the recently purchased Novell Networks Campus
which was completed in 1999. Working on many levels the
design team led the efforts to put in place entitlements for ten
new buildings and six thousand structured parking spaces.
Concurrently, the design team did a deep dive into the eBay
culture to develop the research that would guide the design at
all levels.
The masterplan was developed as a sustainable community.
Utilities were integrated in a coordinated infrastructure.
A
significant portion of the electrical energy would come from roof
mounted arrays of photo voltaics. Building pads were designed
to have the proper solar orientation and were designed with
a shallow depth to achieve fully daylit interiors. The plan also
anticipated the use of natural ventilation and evaporative cooling
to reduce energy demand. The core of the campus would be a
pedestrian zone uninterrupted by vehicular traffic.
Existing eBay Campus.
RESEARCH PROCESS
At the same time, working with the workplace productivity
What would be your ideal mix of work time
in each of the following locations?
consultant Future of Work, an extensive survey was made of how
Residence
Other
eBay utilized their offices. Conferencing, workstation function
and the use of amenities were all monitored to fully understand
65%
where the staff spent their day. Drawers and cabinets were
58%
opened to discover what was really stored in all these places.
In addition, during this research phase key stakeholders
were interviewed about the design of the workplace and the
28%
WORKPLACE UTILIZATION
22%
26%
17%
campus. The most important of these interviews was with Meg
Whitman.
The CEO offered a unique vision of what the design team needed
Zero
1-10%
11-20%
21-30%
41-50%
More than 50%
to achieve.
In her view eBay was transitioning from an entrepreneurial
How many hours per week do you typically
work in each of the following locations?
company to a mature corporation. In the past, each employee
understood eBay’s mission and ethic. The company is much
Residence
Other
more than the Walmart of the internet, it is about enabling their
users, it is an attitude. This was the DNA of the company, when
there were only a few employees it could be handed off from
61% 60%
person to person. But in this transition, Meg saw that all this
could be lost as the staff grew into the thousands.
47%
39%
Her solution was design. She felt that architecture had both the
potential and the power to communicate the eBay DNA to the
25%
new generations of employees that would come to work for the
company. In this sense, she saw the new campus in the same
way an institution of higher education sees their campus; it is
8%
Zero
1-10%
11-20%
21-30%
41-50%
Workplace utilization research.
More than 50%
an embodiment of the shared memories that help them define
their community of students, faculty, and alumni.
VERSION 1
Rolling Pin Conference Room
Over a two year period all of the buildings
were gutted and converted to an open office
plan. The interiors were populated with
thousands of low-price items purchased
through eBay’s online marketplace.
REUSE OF THE NOVELL CAMPUS
The six buildings of the Novell Campus included 600,000 sf of
office space, predominantly divided into 10 X 12 private offices.
Over a two year period all of the buildings were gutted and
converted to an open office plan.
At this time, eBay was principally an online marketplace. In those
days, each building was named after one of the marketplace
categories; toys, fashion, house and garden, jewelry, and the
like. eBay Version 1, would populate the office interiors with
thousands of the low price items that could be found online. In
the “House and Garden” building the “Rolling Pin” conference
room would feature lots of rolling pins.
To Meg, this approach perfectly captured the value, the
playfulness and the culture of the company.
Existing Novell Campus.
B17
Big Brother
First Cousin
Second Cousin
BIG BROTHER, FIRST COUSIN, AND SECOND COUSIN
Concurrently with the reuse project, planning was underway for
B17, the first new building on the eBay campus. Immediately
the big question became, what would the seventh building on
Immediately the big question became,
what would the seventh building on
campus look like. The working group
agreed that we would prepare three
alternate designs.
the campus look like? How much influence should the Novell
architecture have on the new building?
The older buildings reflected a very different mindset. The
exterior skin was a richly detailed mosaic of granite, glass
and aluminum panels. The interiors featured wood paneling,
stainless and glass railings and stone finishes in many locations.
This was not the aesthetic of the Walmart of the Internet.
In response the working group agreed that we would prepare
three alternate designs. The first was “Big Brother” so named
because B17 would be a five story building vs. the three and
four story height of the existing campus. The second and third
alternates were nicknamed “First Cousin” and “Second Cousin”
which departed more and more from the precedent as the
names imply.
In the end eBay decided they were more comfortable with “Second
Cousin” which departed dramatically from the precedent.
While precast replaced stone, the punched window pattern
was retained for the east and west elevations to decrease solar
exposure; and a broad panel of punched openings was used on
the north elevation as an extension of the similar pattern on the
two adjacent buildings. In a number of similar design decisions
the new building distanced itself from the existing campus, but
still preserved some connections so that it maintained a vague
familiarity with its context.
Building 17 distanced itself
architecturally from the existing
campus, but still preserved
some connections, such as
these punched openings seen
here on the north facade.
Precast concrete and glazing clad Building 17.
Cafe 17 glowing at night.
Bloom Energy fuel cells, seen
outside Building 17 provide an
additional 12% of power to the
eBay Campus.
EVOLVING SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES
In 2003, the design team presented LEED as an option to eBay.
Eight years ago the USGBC and the LEED accreditation system
were only four years old and not widely recognized. Initially there
was little interest, even though eBay embraced the sustainable
strategies embedded in the campus plan on their merit as good
design and good facility management.
In the end, Valerio Dewalt Train registered the building at our
LEED was only four years old and
not widely recognized. In the end
we registered the building at our
own expense.
own expense. Two years later in one of the executive design
reviews, one of our eBay stakeholders asked about LEED
emphasizing that they thought B17 should be accredited.
Before the facility director could answer, Joe Valerio announced
that the building had been registered before schematic design
began. The executive team was pleased and the facility director
was relieved.
In the end the building contains a wide range of strategies which
led to a LEED Gold certification. This included earning every
available point for indoor air quality – a critical concern for eBay.
Many of these strategies were anticipated in the masterplan and
some that were added as part of the planning for this building.
The building uses a daylight harvesting system with automated
shades to daylight the interior. A number of strategies were used
to reduce energy consumption, including the design of a Building
Automation System which has an intuitive user interface. eBay
staff can log onto the system and monitor the operation of their
Solar Photovoltaic cells are seen on the roof of Building 17.
office space on their computer or their handheld device.
The commitment to renewable energy increased dramatically.
A 650 kW PV array provides 15% of the power to not just B17 but
for the entire campus of seven buildings. Five Bloom Energy
fuel cells were added that provide an additional 15% of the
power for the campus. These cells are powered by natural gas
and exhaust water vapor and carbon dioxide. The use of this
new technology led to B17 being featured on “60 Minutes,” the
respected CBS program.
SHAPING THE WORKPLACE
Since the campus re-use project, eBay as a company had evolved
into more than its core business as an online marketplace. As
a result eBay V1 transitioned into eBay V2. Version 2 featured
workstations which were much more open, with a significant
reduction in storage including the elimination of all the overhead
cabinets. The interior environment was still playful, but was
more abstract relating more strongly to the building as a whole.
Emphasizing the commitment to sustainable design, in each
of the seventy conference rooms, a graphic panel describes a
different sustainable strategy with photographs, diagrams and
a narrative. These strategies include those used in the building
and many more.
B17 is a building that bears a
comfortable yet vague connection
with the older buildings on the
campus.
The architecture of the building is based on a regular structural
bay; 30’ in width, and 40’ in depth between the exterior curtain
wall and the wall of the building core. The broad all glass north
and south elevations are punctuated by projecting bays and
inset slots that strategically expose and express the regular grid
of round columns and floor plates.
The east and west elevations are split in the middle by the fire
stair which is flooded with sunlight from a full height all glass
panel encouraging people to walk from floor to floor. At first
glance these elevations appear to be just a broad expanse of
precast concrete. But at second glance, these end walls have an
unexpected twist – reflecting one of Meg Whitman’s comments
that eBay should always surprise people.
B17 is a building that bears a comfortable yet vague connection
with the older buildings on the campus. But in its sculptural
expression of its façade on all four elevations it reflects the DNA
of eBay; it is surprising and innovative.
The interiors have matured
since V1 yet still allow for a fun
workplace.
B17 First Floor Plan
3
6
4
1
5
2
4
7
1 Cafeteria
2 Servery
3 Fitness Center
4 Locker Room
5 Main Lobby
6 Conference Room
7 Data Center
B17 Third Floor Plan
2
2
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
3
2
3
2
2
3
1 Open Office
2 Conference Room
3 Informal Collaboration Space
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
1
2
2
2
Graphic installations are found
in conference rooms providing
information on the building’s
sustainable features.
A large fitness center looks out onto the eBay campus.
Bright colors and natural light fill the interior space at B17.
VERSION 3
The office space in V3 is much more open and provides for various
spaces to work alone, on a team project or to make presentations.
EPILOGUE
With the new CEO, John Donahoe, the emphasis on teamwork
and collaboration at eBay has increased dramatically. In 2009,
Workplace Resources and Valerio Dewalt Train began the
development of a new initiative to align the workplace with
the company as it continues to evolve. Panels have almost
disappeared entirely, the size of workstations continued its
A new initiative to align the
workplace with the company as
it continues to evolve.
steady decline, while the number, size and configuration of
teaming spaces have increased.
The new Workplace Initiative was rolled out in early 2011, and
will be implemented over time throughout the two San Jose
campuses, including B17.
Over the years of her leadership, her real estate strategies were
truly financially prudent. But beginning in 2003 she began to
realize that the company had grown far beyond her dreams
and those of the founders.
eBay was becoming a mature
corporation. No longer could she take the time to talk to new
employees communicating the entrepreneurial spirit and the
corporate DNA in each new hire.
On a series of office interiors she worked with the design team
to use to built environment to educate the people of eBay
about the meaning of the company and its spirit. In 2003, eBay
purchased a 500,000 sf campus from Novell Networks, with
significant additional land which allowed the design team to
obtain entitlements for an additional 1.5M sf of space.
WPI Plan Diagram
In 2004 work began on the first new building eBay had ever
built. What was an appropriate architecture for this upstart
company? Through a series of brainstorming meetings, a team
of executives led by the architects focused on eBay’s global
responsibilities. The focus of the new building would be twofold – to create a truly 21st Century work environment, and to
make this building as eco-friendly as possible.
But the building also needed to have that eBay attitude – in
response the building is purposely mannerist, it takes the
expected Silicon Valley architecture and twists it into something
entirely new. At the same time, it is registered with LEED and
will be submitted for a Gold Rating. But in the end, it is a place
where people like to go to work.
Elisa Dennis
Philip Miller
Noelle Wilhite
VALERIO DEWALT TRAIN ASSOCIATES
500 North Dearborn
Chicago, Illinois 60654
424 Waverley Street
Palo Alto, California 94301
© 2011 Valerio Dewalt Train Associates
Jami Primmer
Brian Fox
Veronica Widholm
Mark Nagis
Antonio Caliz
Sandra Robison
Kyle Reynolds
Rebecca Raup
Keryn Means
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