Five Below

Recently Officeworks PA completed the Five Below Headquarters Project located at 701 Market Street in Philadelphia. Five Below Inc. is an American publicly-held chain of discount stores in America that sells products $5 and below. The project team included the  design firm D2 Solutions, the construction manager was Structure Tone and serving as project manager was CBRE. The 117,000 square foot 3 floor project included 375 workstations, training rooms, conference rooms, coffee bar and a cafe. It stretched over 3 floors.

The client’s vision for the space was to preserve the history and original architecture of the building and raw space while tying in fun elements of their brand. The OW team used Expansion Cityline and over 50 ancillary vendors to make the space appealing to visitors and employees.

As with many projects, there were quite a few design challenges. The location of the space was originally 31 attached buildings, all with different floor heights, ceiling heights, elevations, building materials, all offering a different transition. Each of these elements added to the rawness and design of the space, but, still posed obstacles along the way. These obstacles for overall design and layout were overcome with collaboration between the subcontractors and others – the driver being the very engaged team of Five Below employees.

The project started with 6 furniture dealerships participating in a design challenge. We ultimately won the project based on our introduction of Teknion’s Expansion Cityline product. Cityline is based on the concept of a workplace as diverse and dynamic as a city. It offers a highly active setting that allows people to move, to gather and to disperse when privacy and focus is desired. With a unique beam framework Cityline creates workstations, collaborative spaces, and mixed-use areas where people can pursue individual and collective goals.

Sarah Finnegan of the PA office commented on the project pursuit saying, “It was really an incredible process with many thoughtful discussions about how will the space be best used to create a fun, exciting, on-brand environment for employees. We had the pleasure of meeting their team in multiple showrooms both locally and nationally.  We took this opportunity to really sample and kick the tires, thereby gaining a better understanding of their goals and culture. Ultimately, we won the project due to the Cityline’s flexibility and beautiful design finishes”.

Interestingly, The Five Below building is the only location in the city of Philadelphia that has all 3 modes of mass transit under one roof. Pretty cool for a fast growing and moving company!  We are also happy to say that this project won the 2018 IIDA Pennsylvania New Jersey Delaware Chapter Design Award for Best Corporate Office over 20,000 square feet.