The Management
July 29, 2008 5:56 PM
LOCATION: Thompson & Knight Goes Modern
Posted by Jonathan Thrope
Thompson & Knight is the second Am Law 200 firm in as many weeks to move its founding office. This week, the Dallas-based firm is spending its first days in the brand new One Arts Plaza, on the eastern border of the city's arts district. (Last week Greenberg Traurig announced a planned return to its roots in downtown Miami.)
When the relocation is complete, Thompson & Knight will occupy approximately 180,000 square feet and six floors of the new building for its nearly 220 Dallas-based attorneys; there is some unoccupied expansion space for the firm to grow into. The 24-story mixed-used building also contains some residential and retail components, as well as the corporate headquarters of 7-Eleven, Inc. (even a 7-Eleven store).
"We were looking for an energizing, innovative, efficient, cutting-edge space," says Larry Hicks, managing partner of the Dallas office, which has occupied space at 1700 Pacific Ave. for close to 25 years. Hicks says the new building will be more attractive to a younger workforce.
Should those lawyers find time to head out of the office, they will have plenty of entertainment options, as the Dallas Opera Building and Dallas Art Museum are two of the venues located just steps away from the new space, and all within the city's 19-block arts district. The move will bring the firm closer to one of its longtime clients, too--the Dallas Symphony.
Hicks says the firm will seek to be more efficient in the new location. The office will feature a smaller library, a conference center, and special lead-free glass throughout the interior. The firm is pursuing LEED certification for the space.
One Arts Plaza is part of Dallas's 19-block and 68.4-acre arts district, nearly complete today after close to 30 years of planning. The building was completed in late 2007 and cost $125 million.
A review on guidelive.com describes the building as "restrained, to the point of being stiff and bland, a gigantic modernist grid in which expressiveness consists mainly of shifting volumes to one side or the other of a Flora Street centerline. Subtle asymmetry is not enough to make the building sing, or even hum, which a building in such a critical position needs to do."
No word yet on what impact the architecture might have on current and future clients.
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