The new headquarters of creative industry leader M&C Saatchi Group at the historic Transport House in Sydney’s CBD is designed to enable all its agencies to work in the same office for the first time.

Designed by Woods Bagot, the new HQ consolidates the company’s office footprint on 3000sqm of space across three floors. A long-term tenant of the early 20th century building at 99 Macquarie St, M&C Saatchi Group wanted to bring its staff together in the CBD, close to creative institutions such as the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Opera House and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Woods Bagot transformed the three levels of the historic building into a completely new workplace to meet the client’s dramatically recalibrated user demands and expectations in the post-pandemic period.

“Woods Bagot has created a space that allows us to better connect with the big ambitions of our clients, our people and the industry we are part of,” says Justin Graham, M&C Saatchi Group CEO for Australia and New Zealand.

“It allows us to inspire, create and collaborate in a cutting-edge environment. It is a critical step forward as the business evolves.”

Amanda Stanaway, Woods Bagot’s global leader of workplace interiors, said the project embodies two of the primary post-pandemic workplace trends.

“The flight to quality is also a flight to character,” Stanaway says.

“We’ve taken an early 20th century building and brought it into the 21st century through significant base building interventions, enabling us to achieve the primary goal of facilitating better flow and worker connectivity.”

The scope included repositioning the building core, adding two new internal staircases linking teams across all three floors, creating a dedicated building entry, increasing collaboration space, and incorporating a destination café, flexible work areas and quiet areas.

“It has been a wonderful experience to marry Sydney’s past with the city’s future,” Stanaway says.

Project leader Jordan Schumacher said the redesign drew on the history of Transport House, completed in 1938.

“It’s a story of origins, modernity and a celebration of character,” Schumacher said. “The design outcome uses opposing ideas to create different spaces and experiences derived from stories of the past shaping stories of the future.”

Images: M&C Saatchi Group office design and fitout by Woods Bagot | Photography: Nicole England