Life Science

Svigals + Partners Completes Biohaven Pharmaceuticals Workplace

Lounge-inspired work furnishings blend casual spaces with work spaces.

Yardley, PA – Art, architecture and advisory firm Svigals + Partners has announced the debut of a second major workplace for Biohaven Pharmaceuticals.

The bright, dramatically-open, two-floor office space, located outside Philadelphia, serves a highly mobile workforce and is part of the company’s expansion into the mid-Atlantic region. It echoes many of the ideas in Svigals + Partners’ design for Biohaven’s headquarters completed two years ago, set in a reimagined 1900s landmark building in New Haven.

A collaboration and meeting space is enclosed with arched openings and new, matching doors.

For the new 17,000sf offices and sales training center in Yardley, Svigals + Partners led the architecture and interior design, as well as the artistic brand expression, as it did for the headquarters. The design team carved an opening between the second and third floors to add a new “communicating stair,” connecting a bar-style work area to gathering spaces with lounge-style seating. The result is the creation of a social hub for the office combining open, collaborative workspaces with opportunities for refreshment to promote informal interaction between Biohaven team members.

Led by firm partner, Chris Bockstael, AIA, Svigals + Partners’ multidisciplinary team included Katherine Berger, NCIDQ, WELL AP, director of interior design, and Alana Konefal, Assoc. AIA, associate, who devised a modern, open layout with two ample lounges, as well as collaborative work zones.

The design includes prominent branded elements, including a custom perforated metal panel wall to echo those in Biohaven’s headquarters, glass-walled conference rooms, and two immersive training/simulation rooms that can be combined into one large presentation space. These spaces are situated adjacent to a second pantry/kitchen area, contributing to one of the key objectives which was to create multiple opportunities to greet, entertain, and train visiting sales teams.

The space is designed to maximize collaboration and productivity through a wide variety of casual spaces and 60 open workstations complemented by 10 phone booths, seven huddle rooms, and three small meeting rooms.

BioHaven collaboration areas, ready for hot-desking

The workplace harnesses daylight, and outfits workers with sit-stand desks in a setting marked by natural materials, nontoxic finishes, and premium air filtration. The company’s brand colors, green and blue, are complemented by a contrasting magenta proposed through a virtual-reality walkthrough. A centerpiece staircase was created, and the interior spaces allow for outdoor views through the building’s large ribbon windows.

Leading the project team, Svigals + Partners provided key services including programming, architectural and interior design, and design and specification of all fixtures, furnishings and equipment (FF&E). The company also established brand-image finishes and details for the Pennsylvania location following on its design for the Connecticut headquarters.

Construction, fast-tracked for early demolition, and steel erection was handled by Norwood Construction Services and Rubenstein Partners. Other key consultants included Michael Horton Associates, Inc., structural engineering, and Vanderweil Engineers, MEP engineering.

Biohaven is a clinical- stage biopharmaceutical company creating innovative, late-stage pharmaceutical product candidates targeting some of the rarest neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases.