The Challenge:
As Lord Abbett prepared to relocate their global headquarters to the top five floors of one of Jersey City’s tallest towers, their vision extended beyond aesthetics. They sought to create a workplace that offered purposeful flexibility, functional variety, and high-performance collaboration environments—all unified under a seamless, intuitive user experience. The challenge lay in balancing an ambitious interior design vision with a rigorous technology backbone that met the standards of a leading global financial firm.
The Approach:
TAD collaborated closely with the architectural team from the earliest stages, ensuring that technology strategy and design intent were fully aligned. The interiors—defined by sculptural geometry, varied room shapes, and open volumes—presented unique integration challenges. Our focus was on delivering a cohesive technology ecosystem that would not only serve a diverse range of workstyles, but also meet the client’s high bar for reliability, compliance, and security.
The Solution:
This HQ exemplifies the fusion of architectural innovation and enterprise-grade technology, designed to support dynamic work while maintaining consistency, control, and security.
Flexible, Secure Workspaces:
- A wide range of workspace types—from private focus rooms and informal huddle areas to scalable training rooms and immersive collaboration spaces—gives employees the ability to select the right environment for the task at hand.
- Despite the diversity of spatial layouts and furniture systems, the technology experience remains unified, intuitive, and frictionless.
- Behind the scenes, all systems were designed and deployed to meet stringent security, compliance, and operational standards essential for a financial services environment—without compromising user experience or performance.
Executive Spaces:
- Dedicated executive environments, including the boardroom, CEO conferencing suite, and executive offices, were developed to provide the same intuitive, self-service experience found in standard meeting rooms—underscoring the firm’s commitment to efficiency and productivity at every level.
Multipurpose Amenity Spaces:
- A reimagined auditorium with a shallow rake and dual-screen display supports more personal interaction and versatile use cases.
- “The Exchange,” a double-height space with panoramic views of Manhattan, was designed to support multiple functions—transforming fluidly throughout the day from café to lecture space to evening event venue.
- A series of broadcast and webinar studios offer flexible production environments for livestreaming, internal communications, and future growth.
The Impact:
The resulting LEED Platinum-certified headquarters reflects Lord Abbett’s commitment to innovation, performance, and resilience. By embedding technology into the core of the design—without ever overwhelming it—TAD helped create a space that empowers teams, supports secure and compliant operations, and delivers a premium experience to everyone who walks through its doors.
This project demonstrates the value of tightly integrated workplace strategy and design, tailored to meet the evolving needs of high-performance organizations in regulated industries.
