Magenta on tour: Workplace Week New York 2019

Last week, our director Jo Sutherland crossed the Atlantic to lend her support to Workplace Week New York, a five-day series of tours and fringe events that showcase some of the city’s best workplaces. It’s only the second time Magenta client Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) has run this event in the Big Apple, but it’s already creating lots of buzz in North American workplace and real estate circles.

Jo has been busy sharing highlights from her trip with the team and on Twitter. And we’re not jealous about it. Not even a little bit. To prove how calm and supportive we’re being about the whole thing, we thought we’d share some of those highlights on our blog too.

Manhattan, the most famous of New York’s five boroughs, welcomes around 3.1 million people during the working day. Many of the world’s leading brands call it home. Over the course of five days, Jo visited the head offices of PwC, Deloitte, Meredith (Time inc.), Viacom, Shutterstock, MetLife, and Delos.

The city has some of the most recognisable buildings in the world. But new, cutting-edge ones are springing up all the time. The Vessel NYC is a 16-storey staircase in Hudson Yards, an ambitious new private real estate development on Manhattan’s West Side. Locals have taken to calling it “The Shawarma” because of its resemblance to the cone-shaped street food.

Earlier this year, fin-tech firm MarketAxess relocated from 299 Park Avenue to its new headquarters in Hudson Yards. Workplace Week attendees got to see how the three-floor office, which is connected by an open central staircase, has been designed to boost communication and collaboration between colleagues.

The Magenta team makes an effort to avoid agency cliches, but even we have to admit that stylish corner offices hold a certain appeal. Here’s one in MarketAxess’s workplace.

Andrew Mawson

Workplace Week New York is the brainchild of Andrew Mawson, founder of AWA. The programme raises money for the I Have a Dream Foundation, a charity that provides mentoring and tutoring to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In November, Andrew will be back on this side of the Atlantic to host Workplace Week London. You can find out more about that event here.

Thanks, Jo! We’re glad to have you back.

Jo Sutherland