Contract - November 2014 - 58

Lowe Campbell Ewald
Architect Neumann/Smith
Architecture
Client Lowe Campbell Ewald
Where Detroit
What 122,000 total square
feet on five floors
Cost/sf $82
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A

nyone who doubts recent media buzz about Detroit's
resurgence needs to look no further than the new offices
of Lowe Campbell Ewald for evidence that a turnaround
is underway. Designed by Detroit-based Neumann/
Smith Architecture, the premier global advertising agency's new
122,000-square-foot headquarters creates a vibrant and energetic
urban home for a segment of the creative economy.
For several decades, Lowe Campbell Ewald had occupied
an office building in suburban Warren, Michigan, but management
decided the timing was right to be part of the urban revolution and
move back downtown, where it got its start 103 years ago. The new
office is located in the former J.L. Hudson Co. building, a 1920s
warehouse structure connected to the city's Ford Field, home
of the Detroit Lions football team.
Lowe Campbell Ewald's move, with 500 employees, marks
a turning point in a broader migration of creative and technology
firms into the city. The influx is gradually infusing the midtown area
near the bustling central business district downtown with new vitality.
"Hipsters and small entrepreneurial companies are starting to move
back to the city," says Jaimelyn Neher, Neumann/Smith project
architect. "The rent is cheap, so they can afford to renovate and
expand. It's like Detroit version 2.0."
Tax benefits and other incentives from the city helped in
the firm's decision-making process, says Jari Auger, chief financial
officer and chief operating officer for Lowe Campbell Ewald. "We
received a personal property tax abatement, a Creative Corridor
58

Incentive grant, and a Discretionary Business Attraction Grant, all
coordinated through the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation,"
she explains. The company also infused $15 million of its own funds
to transform five floors of the eight-story building into a futureoriented workspace.
Exposing good bones
In keeping with the nature of Lowe Campbell Ewald's business,
the architects set out to design an inspiring space for this creative
company. Upon seeing the building for the first time, the Lowe
Campbell Ewald team fell in love with the exposed bones of the
structure as well as a central atrium space that had been carved out of
the building during an aborted attempt to redevelop it as a hotel. It
also possessed the expansive floor plates and raw qualities the ad
agency had envisioned for its new headquarters. "[Lowe Campbell
Ewald] had a war room with an idea board of pinned-up images of
what other firms had done [with their office interiors]," Neher says.
"They knew they wanted open offices with character."
The architects began by further exposing the building's
structural systems, clay tile, board-formed concrete, and steel deck
ceilings. Original concrete floors were also ground and polished. With
the shell exposed, the architects then creatively introduced recycled
materials, such as wooden pallets, electrical conduits, and 500 locally
salvaged wood doors, which were sliced up and reconfigured into
slatted partition pods to further define the open office area and
various meeting spaces.
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NovEmbEr 2014
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Contract - November 2014

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