HPE Headquarters | Spring, Texas | 2022

Design Architects: Pickard Chilton
Lead Architect: Jon Pickard
Architects of Record: Kirksey Architecture
Landscape Architects: SWA Group
General Contractor: D. E. Harvey Builders, Inc.
Client: Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Photographers: Joe Aker with Aker Imaging

Two five-story buildings, totaling approximately 440,000 gsf and housing 2,400 employees, are joined by an all-glass five-story connector with a two-story central lobby. The 730,000 gsf parking garage accommodates 2,055 vehicles. In addition to significant Class-A office, research, conference, and multimedia space, amenities include a fitness center, café, kitchen, and health center. To support employee wellness, a large landscaped central courtyard features a multi-use basketball pavilion, fitness/yoga lawn, water features, outdoor tables, seating and games, and a large greenspace lawn.

HPE’s previous Houston campus was a casualty of climate change. Set on the banks of Cypress Creek, it experienced back-to-back “500 year” floods within two years. After exploring extensive mitigation efforts, HPE undertook the development of a new campus in Spring, Texas. However, four weeks after construction documents were issued, HPE announced the decision to relocate their global headquarters from California to the new Spring campus.
As such, the design needed to be revised to deliver a higher-end workplace for the company's executives. The primary location for core research and development, HPE’s new corporate campus showcases the company’s global status as a tech leader while supporting customer engagement, sales operations, supply chain, and other functions.

Designed and built at the height of the pandemic, HPE’s new global headquarters campus represents the organization’s new vision for their future of work – a new and inclusive home that offers flexibility, balance, and wellness to support their entire team. With the ability to accommodate all their regional employees, HPE worked extensively to create the right-sized space. The new campus significantly reduced their square footage compared to their former campus. As a result, more than 80% of the workstations are not dedicated to a specific person or task. This new workplace has empowered employees to choose where and how to work in a manner that best suits their individual needs. By focusing on team collaboration and wellness, HPE created a welcoming and healthful environment that embodies their culture and fosters innovation, teamwork, social engagement, and employee well-being.

The campus comprises two five-story high-performance buildings with floor-to-ceiling glass, connected at each level by elegantly crafted glass sky bridges for greater accessibility and visual connectivity. A central double-height glass lobby welcomes and orients employees and visitors. Spandrel bands of architectural precast concrete with cantilevered brows unify the buildings’ massing while also providing shading from the Texas climate. In addition to highly flexible, technology-rich workspaces, the headquarters comprises a research and development laboratory, a variety of conference and meeting rooms, and a large maker space. The headquarters’ world-class amenities further enhance wellness and culture. These include a fitness center, large cafeteria, kitchen, and health center. Large-scale LED installations, including an exterior two-story video wall, showcase HPE’s technologies.

A large landscaped central courtyard features a multi-use pavilion, outdoor tables, seating and basketball games, and a large greenspace lawn. The conference center roof serves as a large green terrace. A detached multi-story parking garage clad with a custom perforated metal panel façade provides a unique expression in addition to enclosing the central courtyard. The LEED-NC Silver-certified headquarters features a custom high-performance enclosure with insulated glass to comfortably make views and natural light accessible. Finishes were selected for low toxicity and recyclability. The campus uses 100% renewable, offsite-generated energy. With access to a nature preserve via walking paths, a one-acre courtyard is landscaped with native and adaptive vegetation that requires minimal water. More than 87% of construction materials were diverted from landfills.