Just before the pandemic descended upon the world, organic food company Amy’s Kitchen executives planned a grand, Google-esque campus for its employee headquarters. They had a spot picked out: a 147,300 square foot space, which would have been the centerpiece of a 36-acre riverfront development in Petaluma, CA.
But as we all know, the pandemic changed everything. As they navigated lockdown, they realized they wanted something completely different.
“We recognized there was an incredible need for connection, collaboration, to bring people into the culture, bring people into exploring our food together, getting to know each other as humans,” said Amy’s president Paul Schiefer. “We really started thinking about an office in a different way, which I think was really important and timely because we were in the middle of a pandemic when this came together.”
Going To Town
Instead of holding employees captive with on-site restaurants, a gym, and nap rooms, they worked with design firm Clarke & Reilly to give employees a beautiful place to work while encouraging them to go out into the community when it was time to eat, exercise, and do other things humans enjoy.
“Everybody was creating these offices to keep people in,” said Clarke & Reilly co-founder Bridget Dwyer. “Those things were not perks, they were golden handcuffs. Like here’s a pinball machine—actually that’s not a perk. If I want to play pinball, I’ll go to the bar down the road.”
They backed out of the riverfront development and instead chose a corner 20,000 square-foot building in the heart of downtown Petaluma, home of Amy’s founders Andy and Rachel Berliner, and where American Graffiti was filmed.
“(In Petaluma) we’ve got wonderful restaurants, we’ve got wonderful shops, we’ve got a gym, we’ve got yoga,” Schiefer said. “All the things that you want to do are part of the community of Petaluma, they don’t have to be inside our building.”
In the beginning stages of planning, residents and business owners worried about parking.
“But we said, ‘We’re going to buy jeans from your store, we’re going to buy coffee from your shop, we’re going to go to your restaurant for happy hour,’” Dwyer said.
(Parking wasn’t an issue for me when I drove to Amy’s for this interview. I parked directly across the street at 9 a.m. on a Wednesday without having to circle the block.)
The building has been home to a department store and a sofa shop among other things. It also stood empty for years when skateboarder Minna Stess—who happens to now be sponsored by Amy’s—would sneak in for clandestine skates.
It’s now been transformed into something that, in contrast to the Bay Area’s massive tech campuses, feels like a revolutionary office concept.
To emphasize integration with the neighborhood, the designers left the glass storefront. So unlike most offices, passersby see the beautiful interior rather than a solid wall. They get lots of forehead smudges on the glass.
Centering On The Kitchen
Once inside, the space is centered, appropriately, around a kitchen. Walking in the front door, no cubicles are visible. Instead, your eyes land on a long, live-edge wood table. It’s surrounded by a quasi “living roof”—elevated planters that echo the living roofs at the three Amy’s Drive Thru restaurants, all of which were designed by Symbiosis Ecotecture.
The design team spent a lot of effort making a cavernous building feel cozy. They built a dropped ceiling at the entrance for a snug feeling as you walk in, which conveniently also facilitated a seating area on the second floor. The front desk is camouflaged by plants and a material that looks like terrazzo but is made of timber sourced just 20 minutes down the road. “Woodrazzo,” Dwyer joked.
Conversation areas with small tables, sofas, and rustic modern chairs pepper the first floor. Walls are lined with wood shelves and decorated with cutting boards.
“We tried to think of not just the office user, but the broader ecosystem of people who need to come together around Amy’s in the design of it,” Dwyer said.
Choose Your Own Office
Traditional workspaces are reserved for the second and third floors, where employees have the option of closed-door rooms when they need it.
“I was very insistent early on—and it took some change management—to get rid of the idea that you get a type of space based on your hierarchy,” said Schiefer, who does not have a dedicated office. “Instead you get a type of space based on your need. People can switch around in the day or throughout the week. It creates a different form of equity.”
It also increases the chances employees will interact with coworkers they might not normally encouter. To further increase those chances, Schiefer wanted coffee and water to be located in one spot only, so employees need to circulate through the building to get their fix.
“I still get flack for that,” Schiefer said.
A large conference room features homey wood accents but is also complete with all the necessary technology. It can be divided into two rooms to accommodate smaller groups.
Sustainability Is Baked In
The Berliners founded Amy’s in 1987 when Rachel was pregnant and on bedrest with their daughter (Amy). In search of easy meal solutions, they couldn’t find frozen meals that tasted good, let alone that were organic. Amy’s—and Amy—were born.
The brand has focused on organic food and sustainability from the beginning, so there was no question the office would also place sustainability at the forefront.
“In terms of materiality choices, everything was sourced through the lens of the values of the company,” Dwyer said. “There wasn’t a checklist of like, let’s be sustainable and ethical—of course we were going to be sustainable. That’s just a given.”
The designers sourced wood locally and repurposed furniture from Amy’s old office whenever possible.
They also repurposed any architectural features of the building they could. They polished the floor instead of re-pouring a new one. They kept the existing mezzanine and extended it, mimicking the existing design rather than building something new.
“I think that the worst thing you can do to an old building is to kind of change its whole look and feel because there’s a soul inside a building that was built at this time,” Dwyer said. “You really want to hold on to whatever soul you can find and uncove, and then with it as opposed to against it.”
From the top floor, we were nearly eye-level with the largest ceiling fan I’ve ever seen. It’s part of the carbon-neutral heating and cooling system, and, despite its size, creates a subtle breeze and gives the sensation of being outside.
Office Hours
And now for the million dollar question: how often are Amy’s employees required to come into the office?
“We don’t have any kind of forced mandate today,” Schiefer said. “But we do ask that you’re here for the moments that really matter, based on the type of work you do, your level, your role. The moments that matter for us are brainstorming, having critical conversations with your employees, team meetings, any time when collaborative in-person energy brings a lot of benefit.”
Schiefer asks leadership in particular to set a good example by showing up in person for those important times. For now, he said, it’s a guideline, not a rule, but he hopes most employees will come in two to three times per week.
Like most other companies, Amy’s is figuring out the right balance. But with such a thoughtfully-designed and welcoming office, it shouldn’t be too much of an arm twist to get employees to show up IRL.