The building’s architecture became associated with the “ProLitteris” brand. Evidence of this includes the changing colors of the elevator lighting, a logo above the entrance and the motto engraved in the floor: “So that creativity receives its due”.
After the change of management in 2014, things developed differently. ProLitteris soon reduced the space it used itself and later did so several more times. Today, employees share their workstations. Only a few work full-time and are in the office every day.
To avoid leaving the reception desk in the spacious foyer unattended, the current CEO promptly set up his workstation there. He sorted the mail and soon discovered that it could be digitized. At the same time, he had an unobstructed view of three oversized wooden panels displaying a somewhat vain portrayal of the company from earlier times. He enjoyed pointing out a typographical error in the adhesive lettering to visitors. The panels became a quiet sign that ProLitteris no longer wanted to look inwards, but to act outwards.
In the meeting room next door, the Board of Directors, the collecting societies, staff and all the guests who came and went at the ProLitteris House met. The entrance area gave participants in numerous specialist lectures, members’ meetings and receptions a view upwards through four floors to the sky. If the space was available, it was worth using.
They were exceptionally attractive offices. ProLitteris always enjoyed good relations with the neighbouring pharmacy, the medical practice and all the other tenants in the building.
But the airy offices had become too large for ProLitteris’s current needs. Most recently, the company still used around 600 square meters of office space and more than 200 square meters of storage and archive space. That is much less than before, but still too much. Subletting reached spatial and administrative limits. During every budgeting round, the Executive Management examined the cost of the premises.
At the same time, permanently leasing out the vacant space proved demanding for the foundation. The CEO and CFO managed the property as a secondary responsibility. The Executive Management’s actual primary task is to administer rights and represent the interests of authors and publishers. Digitalization, international cooperation and the demands of numerous stakeholder groups require ever greater attention.
Two years ago, the decision was made to look for a new location for ProLitteris. The cooperative’s Board of Directors and the owner’s Foundation Board agreed. The foundation was not to lose out, so finding a new tenant took priority. On 1 October 2026, a fertility center will take over ProLitteris’s attractive premises and convert them to meet its own needs.
At the same time, ProLitteris had to look for suitable offices. A chance encounter brought the landlord of an older building on Bürglistrasse in Zurich together with the ProLitteris Executive Management. The older building has an appropriate amount of space, offers flexible workstations and suits ProLitteris. The new head office is very well served by public transport.
The figures also add up. The new solution halves the rent. It now amounts to only one third of the occupancy costs when ProLitteris moved to Universitätstrasse 20 years ago.
The Executive Management, the Board of Directors and the employees look forward to opening a new chapter for ProLitteris on Bürglistrasse in autumn 2026. We will find ways to invite people interested in copyright there as well, with a little less space.