Full Circle: Bringing Brand to Life in St. Louis’ Most Sustainable Office
Most teenagers don’t tour corporate office buildings for fun. But I wasn’t a typical 15-year-old.
Vice president of my high school’s Environmental Club, I hung out after school planting gardens on campus and sorting the recycling in the cafeteria. (I’ll let you fill in the nerdy, tree-hugging blanks.)
And then, one of the largest companies in St. Louis announced its new headquarters was opening with LEED Platinum certification—making it the most sustainable office building in the entire country.
That’s how I found myself on a tour of the Alberici office, learning about the campus’ native plants, sustainable building materials, energy-efficient utilities and rainwater collection system.
It was 2005, and it was all very cutting-edge and exciting.
So last year, when Alberici asked Atomicdust to help infuse the evolved brand into their physical spaces, it all felt like a full-circle moment.
Our team just needed to figure out how to make it happen.
The process of placemaking.
In urban planning and design, there’s a cool concept called “placemaking.”
Essentially, it’s the process of making public spaces as beneficial to the community as possible. I like this description from the Project for Public Spaces: “placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution.” Similar to placemaking, placebranding emphasizes an area’s unique strengths and traits, and fosters a sense of community within the people in it.
Alberici’s office isn’t a public space, of course, but it serves as one for the Alberici community—where people across departments and teams can collaborate, learn, work and grow.
We wanted to use the principles of placemaking to bring some new life into Alberici’s already impressive space.
Above: Elements of the Alberici brand refresh
Our team had recently updated Alberici’s brand and launched their new website. Their building was also undergoing some renovations. The timing was perfect to spotlight the brand throughout their headquarters.
Where brand meets building.
We started where it made the most sense: the front door.
Alberici guests and employees park in an on-campus garage that leads right to the building’s entrance.
A vinyl wrap and sign above the door would help with wayfinding… but for an office as notable as Alberici’s, the main entrance deserved to make more of a statement.
So we mocked up a huge, 3D version of their logo, which would easily catch people’s attention and indicate where to enter. Even better, it would be Instagram-worthy: a natural backdrop for teams and guests taking photos to commemorate their visit.
Above, an early mockup shows placemaking ideas. Below, the final designs installed outside the main entrance of Alberici’s headquarters.
We developed new concepts for the street pole banners and monument sign, which was often getting covered up by the tall prairie grasses that grow throughout the property.
Inside, we looked for opportunities to express the brand–especially since some of the walls and finishings were already being updated. Vinyl wall wraps pair black-and-white photos of Alberici cranes against nighttime cityscapes with the simple but bold graphic devices we’d developed as part of the brand evolution.
A large Alberici logo sign hangs above the front desk, and signs with the company’s mission and values reinforce brand messaging. There’s a bunch of smaller updates too: signs for conference rooms, restrooms, the company cafeteria.
Alberici’s internal marketing team ran with our initial concepts, building out the final versions.
All in on Alberici.
From start to finish, this project was an exercise in placemaking: collaboration between our team and Alberici’s, leveraging their existing spaces and imagining their potential, and creating a space that’s more inspiring, comfortable and meaningful to the people who populate it.
Every project with Alberici is inspiring for our team. Partnering with a company that’s always innovating, has a long history of stellar work, and is a pillar in the St. Louis community is the dream. So thanks to their team for coming to us yet again to help with the project.
And the next time you’re driving by Alberici’s headquarters, you can think about how it’s one of the coolest, most sustainable buildings in town—and how I can guarantee you were a cooler teenager than me.
environmental design,Our Work
