Over the course of about five years we created three buildings that make up Carhartt’s headquarters. Carhartt started up in 1889 when Hamilton Carhartt & Co began making overalls in a small Detroit loft with two sewing machines and a half-horsepower electric motor. We looked at their new headquarters with the idea that existing space and new space have to be one in the same – Carhartt’s current and future spaces must include the rich history of their past.
We dreamt of a place that is a transformer of spaces, able to morph and mold into whatever is needed as Carhartt evolves. We created an office where the boundaries are not hard, but ephemeral and lucid, so that employees can turn to one another and build community. Through a theater, a gym, flexible work areas, retail store, and design war room, we built a campus for Carhartt that stitches their community together.