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How SOM Partnered with The Executive Centre to Create a Bespoke Workspace

Ame Engelhart, Director of SOM Hong Kong shares her experience.
  • SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) is one of the largest and most influential architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world.
  • It was formed in Chicago in 1936.
  • Offices spanning from Hong Kong, New York, London, Dubai Shanghai, and Mumbai.
  • They designed several of the tallest building in the world.
  • They have been part of The Executive Centre’s community since 2004, making them one of our oldest members.

‘’Hong Kong is our base of operation for serving our projects in the Pearl River Delta and in the Southeast Asia region.

Historically, SOM was known for the first skyscrapers, the Lever House in New York City, the Hancock Building, and Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, which really set a new benchmark for the future of skyscrapers in Asia.

We had the opportunity to design the Tanjong Pagar Centre for Guocoland in Singapore, which is the tallest building in Singapore, but also a really unique opportunity to create a modern, large scale mixed-use neighbourhood.

The SOM design ethos is really about design excellence, we’re not about being the biggest architecture firm in the world, we’re about being the best.

We looked around at numerous serviced offices and we ended up selecting The Executive Centre largely because the aesthetics, the presence, the professionalism, the cleanness of the space

They wanted to offer us a bespoke space with our own front door that was designed specifically to meet our team’s needs. So a large bright studio space, an open floor plan, they really designed it exactly to meet our needs. And in each of the ways and forms we needed to work, TEC collaborated with us to meet our needs.

Because that relationship continues to grow, there have been times when I’ve felt like I’ve been as much a part of the TEC team as they have been a part of my SOM team.’’