Square and Cash App Office

Rejuvenating a historic building as a dynamic workplace

Client: Block
Location: Missouri, United States
Size: 225,000 square feet
Status: Completed

The Square and Cash App office is a stunning adaptive reuse effort that melds modern design, historic urban fabric and a community-focused mission to create a remarkable new space in the heart of St. Louis. The bold new workplace—housed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Building—helps Block expand its local workforce, recruit and retain top talent and fuel growth strategies for the future.

In a nod to the incredible history and original purpose of the building, our design team chose to leave the newspaper printing press in its place as part of the rejuvenation effort. Now, the press is interwoven with a coffee bar and lounges for collaboration and socialization. Block also chose to infuse extensive art from the St. Louis community throughout the space.

Flanked by the printing press and a Carlos Zamora mural, the vast all-hands area on the ground floor hosts company-wide meetings and serves as a café.

Squareblock2 — Flanked by the printing press and a Carlos Zamora mural, the vast all-hands area on the ground floor hosts company-wide meetings and serves as a café.

Choice, autonomy and collaboration are brought to the next level.

Throughout the building, employees have an incredible amount of choice in where and how they work. The large spaces include three multi-level atria that connect to more intimate areas by a series of interior staircases. Blue Cottage of CannonDesign worked with Block to shape a dynamic and adaptable workplace strategy for the space.

Learn more in this Interior Design feature

Representing drops of printer ink, a ceiling installation by Third Degree Glass Factory, a local studio started by artist and Block co-founder Jim McKelvey, animates one of the building’s three atria.

Square Hq Saint Louis 2021 159 — Representing drops of printer ink, a ceiling installation by Third Degree Glass Factory, a local studio started by artist and Block co-founder Jim McKelvey, animates one of the building’s three atria.

The building features three multistory atria that empower Block employees with wonderful spaces for work and connectivity.

Square Hq Saint Louis 2021 151 — The building features three multistory atria that empower Block employees with wonderful spaces for work and connectivity.

Square Hq Saint Louis 2021 124 — The building features three multistory atria that empower Block employees with wonderful spaces for work and connectivity.

Art is in the DNA of our company. Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey came up with the idea of Square when Jim couldn’t complete the sale of one of his glass pieces because he didn’t have the ability to take a credit card.

Jay Scheinman Global Municipal Affairs Lead, Block

A mural by local Black experiential designer Jayvn Solomon energizes a fourth-floor corridor.

Square Hq Saint Louis 2021 179 — A mural by local Black experiential designer Jayvn Solomon energizes a fourth-floor corridor.

Ensconced in an oak-paneled banquette niche on the third floor, an installation by St. Louis artist Kelley Carman celebrates the landline telephone.

Square Hq Saint Louis 2021 162 — Ensconced in an oak-paneled banquette niche on the third floor, an installation by St. Louis artist Kelley Carman celebrates the landline telephone.

Preserving history

In a project-defining move, the original St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper printing press has been left in place—a behemoth that stretches roughly 80 feet along the ground floor. Now, lounge spaces, areas for personal work and a coffee shop fill its unique nooks and corners. Elsewhere, Joseph Pulitzer’s office remains in the building, adapted as a special meeting space.

The ground floor of the building is still home to the original Goss printing press.

Square Hq Saint Louis 2021 82 — The ground floor of the building is still home to the original Goss printing press.

Square Hq Saint Louis 2021 69 — The ground floor of the building is still home to the original Goss printing press.

The travertine wall, fireplace and credenza are all original to this conference room, once part of the office suite of Joseph Pulitzer, founder of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Square Hq Saint Louis 2021 186 — The travertine wall, fireplace and credenza are all original to this conference room, once part of the office suite of Joseph Pulitzer, founder of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

So often in design, you look at the physical form and can see the connections between the original building and the renovation. But sometimes there's an underlying philosophical connection, too. Pulitzer believed providing information enabled readers to have agency. Block is centered on the same principle ... giving people agency. And, we wanted that notion to have a presence in the new iteration of the Post-Dispatch building.

Ken Crabiel St. Louis Commercial and Civic Market Leader, CannonDesign