R/GA closes New York and San Francisco office spaces amid larger restructure

R/GA is closing its flagship Hudson Yards office in New York and its space in San Francisco, according to a memo R/GA CEO Sean Lyons sent to the agency.

In the memo sent yesterday, Lyons stated that R/GA’s “cavernous, football field-sized,” Hudson Yards office hosts about "40 staff and a few clients on any given day. We’re paying for something we don’t use and don’t need.”

R/GA will opening a new office space in New York in 2023 according to a spokeswoman for the agency.

The news comes shortly after R/GA announced its restructuring plans that were said to affect office structure, staffing and how the agency goes to market. According to multiple people close to the situation, R/GA had recently gone through a second round of layoffs after it laid off 5% of its New York staff earlier this year.

“Today, 45% of our U.S. staff live far from our offices, and 80% of our project teams bring together talent from more than one location,” Lyons wrote in the memo. “The ability to bring talent together from everywhere is the backbone of our Distributed Creativity model. Now we need the infrastructure that supports it.”

“We are increasing our investment in travel so we can bring teams together in our physical locations, or wherever groups of R/GA people are based. (A bar bill in Atlanta is a better use of budget than an empty room in Hudson Yards),” Lyons added.

This is the second IPG shop to make drastic changes to its office space. In July, Huge laid off 3% of its staff shortly after announcing it was adopting a “fully-flexible” model.

The last day the agency will use the two offices will be Dec. 23.