Nike Opens Design-Focused Serena Williams Building, Largest Office Building On Oregon Campus

Serena Williams is one of the biggest names in sports so it’s fitting she served as the muse for the design of the largest office building at Nike’s
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world headquarters in Oregon. The new 1-million-square-foot Serena Williams Building, equivalent in size to three Portland city blocks or 140 full-sized tennis courts, will start welcoming back Nike’s Beaverton-area workforce and have the capability to house Nike’s 1,000 brand designers, all on one floor, as the brand celebrates 50 years and looks to the future of design.

Touches of Williams highlight every turn. From subtle nods—her favorite color purple throughout or her favorite flower, the rose, accenting spaces both inside and out—to the bold graphics and artwork, Nike’s new center of design blends together architecture and Nike-fueled, Williams-inspired design.

“We were bringing Serena in early to not just be the building’s name, but really help participate,” says John Hoke, Nike’s chief design officer. “It is a tribute to Serena Williams.”

Designed by Portland-based architecture firm Skylab, the building sits on the expanded northeast edge of campus and features three interconnected wings—abstractly inspired by the wings of the Nike Goddess—connecting to a 180-foot-tall tower, the tallest building in the Beaverton area.

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Housing the Nike Consumer Creation teams of designers, consumer insights, women’s, men’s, kid’s and merchandising, each floor can also represent a different stage in product creation. The main feature of design for Nike comes from the fourth floor, where all of Nike’s 1,000 designers based in the region can sit together.

Jeff Kovel, Skylab founder, says designing the Serena Williams Building was like designing a city. With four restaurants—each themed in name and style to one of the four major tennis tournaments—desks for 2,500 people, event spaces, including a two-story ballroom with 360-degree views, and connectivity, he says his team focused on creating neighborhoods within the building and leaned on storytelling about the brand and Williams to help tie it all together.

The first two levels include 140,000 square feet of showrooms and working space, immersive rooms with 180-degree wraparound visual projection capabilities and a focus on retail presentation. That focus on the fourth floor gets highlighted with skybridges—the longest running 165 feet—that all connect on that floor, encouraging the most flow of people through the space. The office includes 200,000 square feet of lab space for designers to test new ideas and presentations

“The whole building takes your breath away,” Williams says. “Every element, everywhere you go, is an opportunity to be inspired. I hope this building encourages people to bring out the best of themselves and to dream bigger than they thought possible.”

A footwear materials library sits on the third floor, and the color lab resides on the fourth floor. Additional special locations include a two-story Olympia Theater, named after Serena’s daughter, that seats about 140 people on levels seven and eight (each seat in the theater has a number inside a rose-shaped emblem), a Phenom banquet hall on the ninth floor and a 10^th-floor Wimbledon restaurant that shows off the views from the tallest point in Washington County.

The building design was meant for flexibility, allowing for a change of office layout or equipment without reconfiguring the architecture. A focus on movement led to an abundance of stairwells for vertical connectivity and prominence placed on moments of collaboration, both formal and informal. With 150 conference rooms to 23 kitchenettes and “rig rooms” to put projects on the walls or small breakout spaces off hallways and bridges, Susan Barnes, Skylab principal, says “the idea was designing as many flexible collaborative spaces” as possible.

A LEED Platinum-certified building, sustainable highlights include 648 solar panels, rainwater harvesting and reuse on site to reduce water use 69% compared to a typical building of its size, more than 50% of the wood being Forest Stewardship Council certified, the site’s location next to a protect wetland helping enhance the natural landscape and a focus on bringing fresh air indoors.

With the wings connecting, sometimes that means outdoor gardens on different floors, only accessible by the building’s occupants. Each themed differently, the gardens will grow over time and are meant as another place for employees to meet.

In an office the size of the Serena Williams Building, Kovel says they themed design to help people better understand the layout. Deep interior spaces feature a skylight system to bring natural light down through the building and into gathering spaces.

Expect to find small nods toward Williams at many turns. From the themes of major spaces and the cafes to perforations in the cafeteria’s ceiling reminiscent of a tennis racket frame or a light fixture that traces the locations of Williams’ aces at the U.S. Open. Inside the main foyer, 23 glass columns, each containing a piece of Williams memorabilia, represent the 23 major championships Williams has won.

The exterior of the building, with granite and a metal skin, were a nod to Williams as the “princess warrior,” Kovel says, and take design cues from Japanese materials, a country prominent in Nike’s early success.

Outside, Place Landscape Architecture focused on creating a more natural landscape—the Nike campus has long been known for highly manicured landscape design—in keeping with the adjacent wetland. Natural plantings highlight much of the landscape, although Williams’ favorite flower, the rose, also gets incorporated near the main entrance. A new covered pedestrian bridge hovers over the wetland, connecting the building to other areas of campus.

A new tennis court named in honor of East Compton, where Williams learned to play tennis, sits just outside the building, near the 2018-opened Coach K Fitness Center.

Hoke credits Kovel and Skylab for planning a building that is helping Nike design get better. “The building has been designed as a catalyst of creativity,” Hoke says. “It is very porous, has lots of penetrations between floors. The team designed with a series of neighborhoods, each get to have a culture, audience and community all on the same floor. I personally can’t wait to see and feel the energy when the teams return.”