The Barbarian Group is an award-winning advertising agency in New York City. After 8 years at their previous office space, the team grew tired of the countless offices, meeting rooms and ‘scheduled collaborations’.

They set their sights on an open-concept design to fill a sprawling 23,000 sq. ft single floor office space in the Chelsea neighbourhood. Architect Clive Wilkinson was selected to design the new space defined by an undulating 1,100 ft long desk that would seat all 125 employees.

In an interview with the New York Times, Wilkinson says he got the idea from an earlier version he designed for a London ad agency in 2004. The 1,100 ft long, 4400 sq. ft supderdesk is made like a surfboard out of plywood, with a top of medium-density fiberboard.

The $300,000 table forms seven archways and can accommodate up to 175 employees. The desk was fabricated by Machineous in California and shipped to New York in pieces (so it could fit into the elevator). It was built on site and the top coat of resin was applied in a day and a half. In the video tour below, chairman Benjamin Palmer says it was cheaper than outfitting the office with individual cubicles and desks.

[Sources: The Barbarian Group, Clive Wilkinson Architects, The New York Times, Laughing Squid]