Chiswick Park
1999
The place to be
Property developer Stanhope had a brave ambition: to get world-class businesses to move to a new office park on an undeveloped site in an untested west London location. The buildings, designed by Richard Rogers, would be beautiful: but what would make companies actually move into them?
Enjoy work
Wolff Olins helped Stanhope to reinvent the office park. Traditionally, an office park is a product – a set of buildings surrounded by grass. Chiswick Park, in contrast, is a service – in fact a whole set of services designed to help the 12,000 people who’ll be based there to enjoy work. The idea is simple: if you enjoy work, you do better work, and if you do better work you have a better business. We created the ‘enjoy work’ brand, gave it a cheeky tone of voice, and designed a revolutionary advertising campaign. And we suggested some of the services that would help people enjoy work – from personal shopping to creativity kits to inter-company sports leagues.
20% rental premium
All the buildings in the first phase were pre-let before construction was complete, and achieved rents 20% higher than the average in the area. Now, companies like CBS News, France Telecom and United International Pictures are enjoying work at Chiswick Park as part of a bigger community. The Financial Times has recognised it as one of the ‘Top 50 Places to Work in the UK’ (2007 and 2008). With nine out of its intended necklace of 12 buildings completed in 2008, Chiswick Park continues to grow.
