The word Peloton is a cycling term that refers to the riders at the front of a group who, together, create stronger aerodynamics for a more efficient race. Peloton, a fitness company, a product development company, a technology company, a media company, and a retailer needed new, efficient office space that would create the strong interdepartmental dynamics that empower the brand’s continued growth.
Since its inception, Peloton had been operating out of ad-hoc spaces, accommodating a fraction of their rapidly growing staff. We worked directly with Peloton’s workforce to finish out 50,000 square feet over five floors in a recently repositioned building at 125 West 25th Street, providing a blank canvas to invent a new model of workplace that encompasses the company’s multifaceted mission.
One aspect of this new workplace type was to address fluctuating group sizes. As the company grows or as individual departments change, shifts can happen. The design team responded by creating more uniform individual working space. Much of the desking is similar in layout and capability, offering maximum flexibility each group needs to accomplish their tasks. On each floor, open workspace is laid out largely along each floor’s southern wall, with large warehouse-style windows providing ample natural daylight. Intermixed throughout each floor are collaboration spaces of various sizes – from a monumental, stadium-style staircase to circular sofas or plush chairs.
Counterbalancing the more generic layout of the workplace on floor is a Department Destination, a specific home base designed especially for each group. Department Destinations vary floor to floor, so on one floor would be the R&D lab where product teams develop new technology, on another is a photo studio with a seamless wall that provides a backdrop for in-house photoshoots. The apparel team has their own dedicated showroom off the main entrance where they can display merchandise for clients in a highly curated setting.
Between these two zones is where we placed all the office’s enclosed spaces. Nestled between the building’s core and elevator banks, phone rooms, huddle rooms and conference rooms create a central hub where departments can merge for meetings or have privacy for important conversations.
Instead of a typical “water cooler,” employees gather in the office’s Penthouse to interact on a more social level, playing ping pong, working out in the on-site gym, or having a beer on the terrace. Lounge spaces with comfortable seating and banquettes along the walls offer places to grab lunch with each other or catch up on solo work. The floor was designed as a respite from being in a typical office, but serves many functions and is itself a destination for many of the company’s events.
The established zones at Peloton’s new headquarters are designed so that work, research and development, and collaboration can happen simultaneously. We like to think that we invented this new type of workspace to strengthen the flow of ideas, further amplifying the brand through the medium of space.
