Leading healthcare enterprise Centene Corporation’s sprawling headquarters in the upscale suburb of Clayton, MO, includes several buildings and outdoor plazas, but the campus, developed in phases, lacked a cohesive aesthetic and the plazas were experiencing drainage issues. A multiyear redesign of the campus, coined Centene End to End, aimed to unify the campus experience from one end to the other with streetscape improvements, walkways, and functional, beautiful plazas. Buildings were reclad with similar materials, and the outdoor plazas became a valued employee amenity.

Lamar Johnson Collaborative, the inhouse design and engineering arm of design-build developer Clayco, connected the plazas using common elements that created a “predictable experience of the client’s brand,” says Lamar Johnson’s Managing Director Chip Crawford. 

The plazas were designed as multiuse spaces, able to accommodate large groups or smaller intimate gatherings. Lamar Johnson created little rooms in the plazas using “transparent curtains of plants to give visual separation but still see across the space,” says Principal Neil Eisenberger. “And the rooms have seasonal variety to them, as the plantings change throughout the year. Bulbs in the spring, hydrangeas throughout the summer, and asters in the fall add color variety and movement. The pollinators also provide habitat for birds and insects.” 

Twig benches became an unusual solution for adding soil depth in one of the plazas. First, they are a seating element and, second, they function as retaining walls that enabled Lamar Johnson to give stability to the plantings. But the added bonus was Twig’s design itself. 

Twig benches have now become a brand of the campus, particularly in the plaza where they line the outdoor area of an adjacent restaurant and extend out to the street.

Lamar Johnson and its client went back and forth debating pole lighting or path lighting. “We were concerned about light quality and safety,” says Crawford, but they made the decision to use FPG path lights installed in the landscaping that toned down and simplified the light. “We wanted a light look and material that was contemporary and fit with the design of the benches,” he says. Crawford describes the FGP path lights as “artful in nature and different than a standard bollard. They offer the same soft, organic quality as the Twig benches and plantings.”

The safe and protected plazas, now with covered walkways, lighting, and beautiful site elements, are providing amenities for employees to get outside and sit, mingle, and connect with nature. “They’re giving people a joyous experience,” says Crawford.