Here’s how ’WeCrashed’ recreated the WeWork offices
- apr
- 22
What you need to know
- Production designer Amy Williams was tasked with recreating the WeWork offices for "WeCrashed."
- The designer was told she could "go as big as she possibly could."
The WeWork offices came back for one last hurrah.
"WeCrashed" is streaming now on Apple TV+.
To earmark the finale of the series, which streams tomorrow, production designer Amy Williams sat down for an interview with Variety. The designer said that the set ended up so large that it was treated as a real building - with sprinklers, an HVAC system, and everything.
Williams was excited as a designer to dip into the big, luscious extravagant world. Creators Drew Crevello and Lee Eisenberg mentioned she would have to build the main headquarters set. "I had this idea that I wanted it to be this confusing, M. C. Escher-type staircase [place] that was three stories and confusing," says Williams. When she pitched it to the showrunners, they loved it. The set ended up being so big, it was treated as a real-building that needed sprinklers and a HVAC system.
Williams said that stairs in the main WeWork office were intentionally designed to "give Leto's Adam a pulpit which he could preach from."
When designing the workpaces, Williams credits WeWork architect Miguel McKelvey. "We cast the net worldwide," she says for inspiration. "They have a really good pattern at the Paris location. The New York location has the multi-level thing, but with staircases," she explains.
The staircases were important because she wanted to give Leto's Adam a pulpit which he could preach from. Atop that was his office. "It was this place from on high, so when he had the Monday meetings, he could look down onto his kingdom and look down on his disciples," Williams said leaning into the grandiose notion with the staircases.
Williams also intentionally designed the colors to shift across the rise and fall of the company. While the colors grew to be more colorful and exciting at first, they would eventually shift to be more serious.
Furthermore, she built a WeWork timeline that was color-coded, beginning with earthy, organic, gritty and city-like for the early stages. "That's when Edison bulbs were popular and reclaimed wood. As the story heightens, and they get more and more successful, it gets brighter and more colorful, and chaotic." However, as the world begins to crash around them, Williams deliberately stopped the party. "That's when the palette gets serious. It's blue, greens and silvers."
The series finale of "WeCrashed" is streaming on Friday, April 22. If you want to watch the series in the best quality possible, check out our list of the Best TVs for Apple TV 2022.
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