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“Two, four, six, eight, this is how we collaborate” should be the motto for the team at the new Mercedes-Benz USA flagship due to open in the “city too busy to hate” next spring.
“I am really looking forward to how these things come together,” says the president and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz USA Dietmar Exler with a broad smile.
The leader of the the No. 1-selling automotive luxury brand in the country took select media on a tour of the new Mercedes-Benz US headquarters in Sandy Springs, Georgia, which is a short 15 miles away from the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta that opened this fall for play by the NFC conference-champion Falcons and MLB soccer team, Atlanta United.
Sporting my black Mercedes-Benz-branded hard hat and neon vest, this writer joined Gensler’s principal architect Stephen Swicegood and the Mercedes-Benz team on the tour of the 200,000- square-foot facility. Gensler is the world’s leading collaborative design firm, serving more than 2,300 clients in 114 countries. Gensler projects include the 2016 Rio Olympic Games master plan, the Westin Hotel at Denver International Airport and corporate offices for Facebook, the Coca-Cola Company and General Electric.
Swicegood says, “When we met with the MBUSA team, they told us they were fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration and openness among employees.”
Exler’s guiding principles for the new Mercedes-Benz USA culture is “we space, not me space.”
“The atrium is the heart of the building for social gathering and a meeting space for people to talk about their weekend, how the Falcons did, did Georgia [UGA] win … a place to foster communication that will double as the town hall when tables are exchanged for more chairs,” explains Exler. He also pointed, with the drilling and sawing serving as the background soundtrack, the veranda will have outdoor seating and the cafeteria they are “pretty proud of.” It will be home to an executive chef who will serve locally sourced food, pizza, burgers, salads and more.
