Common moved to a brand new office! Although an office move may seem like a minor change, it was a major internal transition for Common as we finally established an office space that reflects who we are as a company. Check out our new HQ, and learn how Common’s Associate Director of Interior Design and Visual Content, Cait Gury, transferred the philosophy of our homes to our office.
Common’s new office in the Company Building
Our new HQ, designed by SHoP Architects, is in a beautiful building with gorgeous finishes and well-designed areas. Common is now part of a community housed under Company, a tech campus of NYC’s top startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises.Cait explains that Common’s HQ is finally a space that feels “representative of our brand value and aesthetic.”
More specifically, it is designed in a way that a Common employee can experience the same comforts and conveniences of a Common member living in one of our coliving homes. For example, we have furnished living rooms with the same furniture brands we feature in our homes, and we have expanded dining areas where we can eat more meals together as coworkers. For colors, we stuck to black, natural wood, and fresh whites. The key was to avoid the stiff and uncomfortable qualities that are characteristic of a traditional office and instead promote spaces that feel classic, functional, domestic, putting you at ease the moment you walk in.
The flow of the office
We now have a fully open office plan, which means there are no cubicles or strict separations between teams. The open desks allow the interior architects to sit next to the software engineers and Marketing next to Sales. This way, everyone is exposed to different parts of the business and can work more collaboratively.
The floor plan of the office is straightforward and flows naturally. It’s clear how the spaces — kitchens, meeting rooms, lunch areas — are intended to be used. There are also large glass windows that give us plenty of natural lighting and amazing views of Grand Central and the Chrysler Building. 
The furniture
The choice of furniture and accent pieces came from the desire to make Common employees feel personally connected with our product: our homes. In that respect, we used our go-to vendors, such as Interior Define, West Elm, and cb2 for everything, from the couches to the plants in our meeting rooms. “We chose these furnishings for our homes because we know they make our members feel comfortable and at peace, and now our employees can experience that same environment,” added Cait.
“I wanted our new office to exemplify the design values that guide us in our work with Common homes. Timeless, warm, comfortable, functional — the new HQ is designed for our employees to feel closer to our physical product and brand experience, with residential, living room furniture groupings, lots of plants, big, beautiful art, etc. I want our employees to feel happy and inspired by their workspace, as we aim for our members to feel in our homes every day,” said Cait.
More about Company
Company defines itself as “seamless integration of technology, hospitality, and purpose-built space” for a curated community of top-tier companies, from venture-backed startups to Fortune 500 corporations. Their buildings and programming foster meaningful interactions, dynamic shared experiences, and a sense of support within the innovation economy.
The Company Building is still under construction, but it will soon feature a grab-and-go-type cafeteria, coffee shop, bar, terrace, marketplace, gym, and wellness center by the summer and fall of 2019. In the coming years, we’ll be bringing coliving to new markets — Canada, Miami, Philly, and more — and we’re so excited to continue growing as a company in this amazing new space! If you’re interested in working at Common, head to our careers page to see our open roles.
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