Venture Architecture: Winner of Architect of the Year Awards 2024. Crocs is an innovative, global shoe company with multiple corporate offices and facilities worldwide, but their headquarters has always been and remains in Colorado. After supporting the Crocs team with crafting their first new 88,000 SF headquarters in 2019, we received a call one year later informing us their company had seen great success with their global strategy and already exceeded the anticipated 10% increase in staffing.

Overjoyed with the new aesthetic and vibe of their office, Crocs reengaged Venture Architecture to create a similar style while more than doubling their current footprint in a new facility. They needed an open yet connected space where their creative teams could grow and thrive. Crocs required enough space for both employees to focus and interact, while they design, procure, and manage their product. One that still reflected their “delightfully democratic” internal corporate culture. We set out to create a space for that dynamic and reflect their unique organization. We named the spaces we designed for Crocs ‘Home for Work’. Somewhere that is comfortable, casual, and makes people feel at ease while allowing them to focus and concentrate on their intense roles in a sought after, fast paced consumer product. A place where their people want to come every day and be enabled to do their best life’s work.

This new space was set in a three story, 190,000 SF, 1999 office building with 14+ foot ceilings, and an uninterrupted panorama of the Rocky Mountains. One area we needed to provide a specific focus was to create a place that could serve as a companywide meeting space, but maintain intimate niches to gather, work, and rest. Given the constraints of the building, this required a creative solution to address some complex structural moves. Specifically, removing a large section out of the existing second floor. After collaborating with our trusted structural engineer, we crafted an idea to remove multiple structural bays and provide the necessary 45’ x 60’ opening. This reimagined space successfully connected the two floors, providing generous all hands meeting space, yet with the intentionally designed, warm culture that Crocs desired.  

We designed a workplace strategy with a continuously looped, people centered, experiential walk path throughout the building. While there is a main entrance and reception, each department has varied shared, evenly meted out amenities – huddle spaces, open gathering areas, coffee counters, as well as architectural details that make every area neighborhood carefully interconnected with one another. Great attention was also invested into the lighting selections and mechanical duct layouts to ensure they were designed in a manner that added to the architecture and supported a casual boundary for the layout of the departments, breaking up large expanses of open office but allowing cross-departmental collaboration.

Crocs is not flashy. In fact, they eschew most things that look too polished. They love their folksiness, their fun and their delightfully comfortable product. Every member of their staff wears Crocs. Every day. [We witnessed it.] From punchy platform clogs to the more understated athleisure sneakers, they are highly aligned with the strategic, international corporate mission and love this company. We labored to honor them by crafting a similarly simple, beautiful, and high functioning space, that harnesses their accessible and relaxed culture for the duration of their lease. Here, they will be able to grow and develop as a brand and team. The outcome is a headquarters that as Shannon Sisler, their Chief People Officer and Executive Vice President put it beautifully “The space really brings our brand to life. It just feels light and very inclusive. There’s lots of bright colors, and there’s just a happiness that goes through the building. Everything just really aligns with our culture.”

Project Details:-
Firm
Venture Architecture

Designer
Martin Goldstein

Project Name
Crocs HQ II

Project Category
Commercial Interior Built

Team
Martin Goldstein

Project Location
Broomfield

Country
United States

Photography ©Credit
Martin Goldstein