Williams Mullen Center – Shell

Williams Mullen, a major regional law firm, began looking for a new headquarters building in downtown Richmond in 2006, targeting occupancy in the summer of 2010, Their hope was to have a significant, recognizable, branded building to reflect their growth and position in the marketplace. They had outgrown their existing offices and the building systems and tenant spaces were showing their age.

Armada Hoffler identified a site for this project in the downtown area in late 2007 that had been vacant and awaiting development. The site had significant challenges, with only minimal available ground area bounded by existing parking garages on two sides and heavy sidewalk easements. A variety of factors including oddly shaped existing column grids, view easement restrictions, and an unusual bulk plane zoning provision increased the project challenges.

Initially, Williams Mullen’s management thought that the site was unbuildable, and only allowed Armada Hoffler to make a presentation because of the pre-existing business relationship between the two firms—basically a courtesy interview.  However, as HBA’s design was presented, they saw that the site could hold a building, and that building would work for their headquarters.  Williams Mullen was eventually convinced that this was the ideal location for their Richmond headquarters.

—- Tenant improvements also

Williams Mullen, a major regional law firm, began looking for a new headquarters building in downtown Richmond in 2006, targeting occupancy in the summer of 2010, Their hope was to have a significant, recognizable, branded building to reflect their growth and position in the marketplace. They had outgrown their existing offices and the building systems and tenant spaces were showing their age.

The program included a building lobby, support and retail space to be located on the ground floor with three levels of parking access from the existing garage ramps and ten levels of office space above.
HBA’s challenge was to fit all of this into the unusual site geometry in a manner that created an identity for Williams Mullen and gave them a floor plate that was efficient for their intended functions. Initially the site was deemed unusable by Williams Mullen management, but after an interview and presentation of HBA’s proposed design it was decided that the 0.384 acre site could hold an appropriate building (625,942sf) for the desired headquarters, to include a 950sf data center.