Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus

BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards Winner

By Jenna M. McKnight

In 1970, Richard Hayne, a 23-year-old with an anthropology degree, started selling bohemian clothing and bric-a-brac out of a small shop in Philadelphia. Over time, his modest business grew to become Urban Outfitters, a public company that now operates five brands and generates more than $1 billion a year.

With its corporate headquarters spread among six buildings in downtown Philadelphia, the company set out to create a unified campus in 2004. A generic office park was not an option: Hayne wanted a place befitting a retailer that offers hip, youthful merchandise with a vintage twist. He acquired five abandoned buildings (four purchased, one leased) in the decommissioned Philadelphia Navy Yard, a riverfront property a few miles from the city center. Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, a Minneapolis-based firm that specializes in adaptive reuse, was hired to transform the brick structures into an inspiring environment for roughly 600 employees.

The architects had several guiding principles for the 285,000-square-foot project. For starters: Preserve the buildings’ scars. “It’s all about revealing the palimpsest of history, rather than sanitizing it back to one moment in time,” explains firm principal Jeffrey Scherer, FAIA. And so steel was left rusty, old paint remained, and ample material was reused — stairs were fashioned from wooden beams, for instance, and windows were removed, reglazed, and reinstalled. Another priority was to ensure every office and design studio fostered creativity. In all five buildings, light-filled interiors with open layouts have a relaxed vibe; amenities such as a gym, dog park, and farmers’ market add to the informal atmosphere.

By all accounts, the $100 million project was money well spent. In late 2006, the company moved into its new digs; in 2008, revenue increased 22 percent, to a record $1.8 billion, and the retailer opened 49 new stores (it now has nearly 300), including its first garden center, Terrain, near Philadelphia. Moreover, recruitment time for senior managers has decreased 41 percent, employee turnover has dropped to 11 percent, and fewer sick days are being used. “The campus has sparked recruitment and improved creative collaboration,” Hayne says, “which ultimately impacts our bottom line.”

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