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San Francisco-based software analytics company New Relic now controls four floors (82,000 square feet) in the U.S. Bancorp Tower in downtown Portland. A project adding nearly an entire floor of flex space recently wrapped up after about a year of development, adding some creative flair to the staid office tower.

Portland facilities manager Andrea Brayson said the purpose of the floor was to create a better first impression.

“This is really an amenities floor,” she said.

Meet-ups are core to New Relic’s hiring strategy and its previous meet-up space, on the 29th floor, doubled as a lunch room. The new layout, open since October, is intended to be the first space seen by new recruits, as well as clients and guests.

“One of reasons we host a lot of meetups is we want a lot people coming through the office. We want to build a brand in Portland,” said Chief Product Officer Jim Gochee. “And we know, the first thing that people think when they walk in the door, is I would love to work here.”

A massive media wall enables leaders to teleconference with the rest of New Relic – Dublin, Barcelona, London, San Francisco and Portland.

The space has a block of convertible workspaces, and contractor Fortis Construction has wired the entire floor to enable the 300 people who work in New Relic’s “intergalactic engineering headquarters” to perform any function from anywhere.

“All of our product is grown out of Portland,” said Meg Bolger, marketing manager. “Essentially this is our R&D headquarters.”

New Relic’s floors each have a theme, such as superheroes or video games. The theme for the 27th is mathematicians and scientists, and has rooms dedicated to Ada Lovelace and George Washington Carver, among others.

The company is growing fast. It was only two years ago it thoroughly renovated 19,000 square feet on the 28th floor.

For the 27th, it went to Interior Architects last November looking for “cool” and “comfort.” Its foremost want was soft, comfortable seating.

Design choices were inspired by New Relic’s love for data and analytics, said IA principal Richelle Nolan.

“We wanted to make sure their people felt really empowered and have places to find respite and to code and be able to play under one roof, while being extremely productive at the same time,” she said.

Nolan said the experience has led to more opportunities for the IA’s two-year-old Portland office and its 16-person staff.

“Every client wants us to be more innovative. Nobody wants templated design.  They want us to really listen to them and their brand,” Nolan said. “This has led to a lot of hospitality themes and residential themes in a corporate workplace. That’s really become the focus.”

Floor-to-floor heights in the Big Pink, built in 1983, are shallow enough designers were reluctant add any structure, for fear of reducing any of the natural light.

Views on the 27th floor of Portland’s second tallest building were special enough the design team merely needed to get out of the way, Nolan said.

“We purposely left the floor-plate quite open and tried to not build out a lot of walls and spaces, but rather use products – millwork and furniture – to be able to decipher what the language of the space,” Nolan said.

An important design element is the hologram fire pit. New Relic also has one at its San Francisco office. Water vapor and lighting provide the illusion of real flames. IA experimented with 15 different products to find the right feel of “realistic warmth” without creating maintenance headaches.