Boston, MA Elkus Manfredi Architects completed an expansion of WHOOP’s headquarters in the city’s Fenway neighborhood to accommodate for the company’s rapid growth. Building on the functionality and success of the original workplace finished in 2018, the design supports the increased needs of WHOOP’s high-tech enterprise with additional space for development and testing of its innovative fitness tracker as well as amenity spaces for clients and employees. 

“Elkus Manfredi is thrilled to continue our partnership with WHOOP as they transform the field of wearable health and wellness technology,” said Elizabeth Lowrey, principal and director of interior architecture at Elkus Manfredi. “Since our original design provided the right kind of environment for rapid innovation and growth, this expansion carries the design concepts forward to empower the company’s continued success.”

The expansion realized the following:

• 9,248 total s/f expanded to 17,748 total s/f;

• 70 workstations increased to 153 workstations;

• Four private offices increased to eight private offices;

• Seven meeting spaces increased to 11 meeting spaces; and

• The addition of seven new phone rooms.

The science, technology, and testing facilities are on full display in WHOOP’s workspace. Immediately visible when visitors enter are the gracious, daylight-filled reception area, a living room/showroom area, a bank of exercise machines, a glass-walled conference room, and outside the window – views of the legendary Fenway Park. The seamless expansion anticipates the current work-from-anywhere realities and includes space for an additional 100 employees with flexible workstations and offices, a variety of meeting and collaboration areas, facilities for product testing and development, areas for exercise equipment as well as spaces for employee relaxation and camaraderie, including an expansion of the café. Additional specialty spaces include a room for new mothers, a gender-neutral bathroom, and a podcast room. 

With transparency being a key design element, the clean, modern, minimal aesthetic projects the youthful energy, physical involvement, and entrepreneurial spirit of the company. 

Unlike other technology-infused athletic wristbands, WHOOP takes a wide variety of complex measurements that provide wearers with previously unavailable information about their bodies’ recovery, strain, and sleep. The wristband provides personalized feedback to individual wearers—from professional athletes to avid amateurs—about their athletic performance and recovery using sophisticated, ground-breaking biotechnology to help maximize athletic performance. Fast Company lists WHOOP as the most innovative health and wellness company of 2020, and its founder, Will Ahmed, has been named to the magazine’s Impact Council.