The entire eighth floor of the Royal Bank of Scotland”™s new North American headquarters, currently under construction in downtown Stamford, offers retail options, a food court, a gymnasium and a garden courtyard, all in the name of convenience and communication.
“The retail floor will have the provisions to have up to four independent retail services ranging from news and magazines to concierge-type services to flowers and gifts,” said Phil Hobbins, RBS property manager for North America. “There are three distinct food venues, including a sports bar and juice bar, hot foods and our signature 1727 Deli, the year that the bank was founded, with an overall dining capacity of over 500 persons. The full-service fitness gym and banking outlet make up the balance of the amenities”™ floor program. You can have, what we call in Scotland, your meat and two veggies, with soup, meat and sandwiches and an area where you can sit down and just relax and look down and enjoy the scenery.”
Nearly an acre in size, the garden area is intended to have over a dozen mature honey locust trees, and has a floor that incorporates the Scottish stone, caithness, with wood planking.
“The roof deck is a natural spillover space for the amenities floor, and will act as a place for outdoor dining, special events, yoga classes and the like,” said Hobbins. “It”™s a nice day, you can go take a walk out in the garden area. How often can you do that at work? Get some air, clear your head, and get yourself away from the work environment for a minute.”
According to the building”™s architect Rodger Ferris, founding partner of Rodger Ferris and Partners, the American model of a trading floor would typically have a tower and be vertically constructed structure, more like the neighboring UBS.
“We are similar in that our trading floor is also on top of a parking garage, but on top of that we have a rooftop garden,” said Ferris. “That became the plinth that we work off the amenities floor with. We decided that this would be a celebratory town square. Connecting it is a six-floor atrium that acts as a central nexus and ties everything together and becomes a way-finder for people in the building. RBS as an employer truly has the interests of its employees more than any corporation we”™ve worked with to date; they have that vision of creating an environment that prioritizes the people that work in it. What other corporation would dedicate this kind of square footage, 150,000 square feet, to an amenity?
They see it as critical to the success to provide that kind of working environment.”
Because the trading floor, a place where moisture is most unwelcome, sits directly below a real functioning garden, special groundwork is required as the buildings construction progresses.
“The trees and plantings sit on a root barrier protection and waterproof membrane system which is nearly a half-inch thick, all laid over a series of pitched concrete decks and redundant drainage systems,” said Hobbins. “What we”™re trying to do is offer the convenience. Rather than having our employees walk another 10, 15 minutes, it”™s all right here. We want to be the employer of choice. We want people to enjoy coming to work and to leave as happy as they went to work. How often do you have an office that”™s 20 stories high ”¦ your mate”™s on the 10th floor you”™re on the third floor and you never ever speak to one another. How can business be conducted if you can”™t speak to one another? We want it to be open so our employees can interact. It”™s supposed to be easy to access and meet with people and that”™s why we”™ve made it the eighth floor; it”™s the middle of the building. There are retail options and it”™s all in the name of convenience.
