Design rendering of ad agency lounge space.
The brass at Campbell Ewald ad agency are understandably pumped about the vintage site that'll be their home in 2014, so they posted 75 photos Thursday on Facebook after hosting a walk-through with an industry writer from New York.
"The new CE work space is a salute to Detroit's scrappy, blue-collar spirit," writes Zack Kinslow, a 26-year-old creative producer at the not-for-profit Art Directors Club in Manhattan.
At a trade website, he shares four architectural drawings of the interior and reports on the tour with Bill Ludwig, the CEO/chairman who joined the agency in 1982 as a copywriter, and chief marketing officer Barbara Yolles.
Ludwig announced the move from Warren on Wednesday at the new site, which is attached to Ford Field.
“We’re keeping most of this as-is,” Ludwig points out as we stroll through the exposed steel girders and sleek-yet-rugged character of the old Hudson’s Department Store Warehouse. “We’re just going to warm it up a bit.. It's a blank canvas for self-expression.” . . .
The epicenter of the new office is a vaulted “hive” with a 360-degree view of almost the entire agency and its 700 people. A giant skylight beams down from above the hive, spotlighting a social area where employees can eat, drink, and bounce ideas off one another.
Chairman and CEO Bill Ludwig at Wednesday's downtown announcement. [Photo by Shauna Nicholson]
Ludwig tells how open floorplans are designed to promote random interactions and brainstorming by inter-disciplinary teams, which the shop calls "idea mobs."
Rather than "breaking down the walls" of the agency structure, they just aren't going to build any in the new space. . . . Say goodbye to the cubicles, and hello to a whole new CE in January 2014.
Kinslow tips his out-of-town status by noting that "a balcony on one side of the office overlooks Tiger Stadium."
For their part, agency employee are abuzz on seocial media about coming downtown.
"Very exciting. . . . We're stoked," posts Shauna Nicholson, senior digital strategist. "Can't wait," comments Lisa Hancock of Sterling Heights.
An airy central atrium and courtyard will be part of the remodeled warehouse.
