BACKGROUND

Raymond James is one of the world’s leading wealth management firms. The London office serves as the European headquarters for this American Fortune 500 company, which manages approximately $1.43 trillion of worth of client assets.

The expansion into the UK started in 2001 and since then, the UK fund has seen remarkable growth. This latest milestone saw their relocation of their two London offices into a new single location on the 13th floor at 25 Ropemaker Street.

• Location: Ropemaker Place, City of London

• Company Size: 240 staff

• Project Size: 22,500 square feet

• Sector: Finance

• Duration: 10 weeks

PROJECT OVERVIEW

After years of rapid growth, Raymond James identified a new 22,500 square foot location in City of London to consolidate two offices, with a total of 220, staff into a single headquarters. Continuing a long-standing client relationship since 2004, Cityspace was tasked with the relocation and fit-out of their new office at Ropemaker Place.

The brief was to create a spacious open-plan office, that would accommodate flexible working strategies. The office would need to be people-focused, easily adaptable for planned growth and welcoming to all.  The brief also called for a dedicated meeting space that could adapt host private clients as well as company gatherings, with great attention given to acoustic privacy.

As Raymond James UK is a FCA-authorised company, our client also required a separate trading facility that adheres to strict regulations.

CHALLENGES AND EXPECTATIONS

To bring the project from concept to delivery, Cityspace worked with the Raymond James leadership team in both the UK and Florida, US, ensuring their insights were incorporated directly into the design plan. With careful timing and planning, Cityspace provided regular updates on project progress, ensuring the Florida-based team were equally kept involved throughout, despite the time zones.

Working within an occupied building presented several challenges in keeping construction noise to a minimum. As is typical of tower buildings, construction noise can resonate through the steel frame structures, transmitting nuisance noise to tenants on other floors. To avoid disturbing occupiers on the floors both above and below the working floor, Cityspace installed rubber mats on key traffic routes to allow materials to move quietly across the site. We managed drilling out of hours and worked with the landlord’s team with adjacent tenants to plan works around their key business activities.

RECOMMENDATIONS

For the majority of the head office, a hybrid flexible working style was adopted. Our design team introduced collaborative working areas, height adjustable banks of desks, informal meeting spaces, high table working areas to allow a change of posture during the day and enclosed booths for quiet focused work. To avoid a rigid office look, planters were used to introduce a softer feel, while subtly signalling different working zones by separating the collaborative areas. With a quirky nod to London’s heritage, iconic red phone boxes were added for staff to make private calls.

As the trading area had to meet certain regulations, it was designed differently to the rest of the office. We placed the trading desks in an enclosed space without desk sharing capabilities. This allows for the ease of deploying specialist technology such as voice recording systems of trade activity.

Reflecting our client’s and Cityspace’s environmental commitments, much of this furniture was repurposed from previous fitouts.

Ensuring maximum use of the floorspace, the team designed a board room with a sliding glass partition that, when open, seamlessly extends into the reception area to create one large meeting space. This area is equipped with state-of-the-art audio and visual technology, and can be reconfigured to accommodate town hall meetings, board meetings, company gatherings or client social events. 

Several other meeting rooms were also installed, all equipped with the same audio and visual technology ensuring frictionless collaboration with global teams. All meeting rooms were acoustically constructed to avoid sound transfers between rooms and reduce reverberation for online calls, so that staff can ensure privacy and protect client confidentiality, as is expected in the financial industry.

Just like London, Raymond James’ workforce is diverse, multicultural and multifaith, so we constructed designated prayer rooms, parenting rooms and wellness areas to support the staff’s personal needs. With meticulous attention to staff experience, even the central breakout area has been designed to reduce social noise, along with enclosed microwave banks so food smells do not invade the open plan office space.  

PROJECT OUTCOMES

Raymond James’ new Europe headquarters demonstrates the benefits of people-first design. When an office is built around employee needs, the environment makes for improved wellbeing and business efficiency. Using an evidence-based approach, the new office supports flexible working styles and collaboration, while meeting our client’s expectations of hosting facilities and acoustic privacy.