Mailchimp goal: New HQ draws workers into office

Think of it as aiming to inspire innovation through whimsy.

The ability to alter video call backgrounds has changed the vibe of work meetings.

You can give a presentation surrounded by a tropical island scene, or maybe the overlay of a refinedstudy will add some sophistication to your virtual interview. If a tiki-themed room or a picturesque library seems like a great backdrop to spice up work, you don’t have to scroll through Zoom’s options — you can just go to Mailchimp’s new Atlanta headquarters.

“We’ve had people com- ment that it looks like a fake Zoom background,” Ashely Wilson, Mailchimp’s senior manager of employee expe- rience, said inside thebuild- ing’s library-themed work- space. “But, no, we’re in the office!”

Mailchimp, one of Atlan- ta’s largest startup successes, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday for its new offices, roughly 360,000 square feet of Beltline-ad- jacent space designed as a white-collar worker’s play- ground. Dozens of murals line the walls, there are a diverse collection of seat choices and amenities are omnipresent to tempt employees away from work- ing from their couch.

The home-grown email marketing organization, which was acquired by Intuit in 2021 for $12 billion, is opening its headquarters during a tumultuous time for the office market. The pan- demic changed how employ- ees get work done, wi h many companies now struggling to figure out how to balance flexibility, productivity and the money spent to maintain their offices.

Christian Widlic, group cre- ative director at Mailchimp, said the top goal was to meld the comfort of remote work with an office’s efficiency and spontaneity.

“We’re competing with people’s homes right now,” Widlic said.

Mailchimp announced in late 2020 that it would vacate its Ponce City Mar- ket offices to move a quar- ter-mile to a larger space within New City Properties’ 12-acre Fourth Ward devel- opment. Mailchimp leased the bulk of the project’s three office buildings, which even- tually will become Intuit’s Southeastern hub with up to 3,500 employees.

Mailchimp co-founder Dan Kurzius said roughly 800 workers currently are based out of the completed offices, wi h company policy expect- ing them to report in-person at least twice a week. Atlan- ta-based UPS made headlines earlier this year by requir- ing all workers to be in the office five days a week, join- ing a growing list of com- panies rolling back remote work policies.

Kurzius said a lot of work was done to incentivize employees to choose to come to the office, from locating mere steps away from the Beltline to offering amenities they can’t get at home. Once workers toured the space, Kurzius said he heard the words many C-suite execu- tives are dying to hear.

“I’ve overheard people say repeatedly, ‘I think I’m going to come into the office more often,’” he said. At anta set records last year r its glut of empty offices. At e end of December, nearly a third of all office square footage in metro At anta was avaiable for rent, according toreal estate services firm CBRE. Real estate experts said uncertainty over office utilization hasparalyzed many companies, wi h several choosing to seek sublessees to take over their unused space. Older and drab buildings have especially struggled to find tenants, with some tower owners facing loan distress and foreclosure.

Mailchimp’s headquarters, which was designed by architecture firms TVS, Studio O+A and Mailchimp’s in-house creative agency Wink, aims to be anything but dull.

The tiki-room is decked out with bamboo chairs, a tropical plant mural and a dangling shark figurine. Breakout rooms are themed like storefronts with their own unique logos. Outdoor porches give sweeping views of the rapidly changing Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. A “maker room” allows for workers to tinker with 3D printers and other crafty projects.

Kurzius said he wants employees to soak in the variety of settings designed to spark their creativity. He said it’s an iteration of previous attempts to generate the water-cooler conversations of old, a tactic technology companies have touted for decades.

“We didn’t really do a whole lot of new things in the space as much as we took old efficient ideas and evolved them,” he said.

PHOTOS BY JENNI GIRTMAN FOR THE AJC Mailchimp’s new Atlanta headquarters in the Fourth Ward features hundreds of pieces of artwork, outdoor porches — and a tiki room.

Mailchamp’s new HQ of about 360,000 square feet opened this week on North Angier Avenue. Roughly 800 workers currently are based out of the building.