First look: Inside Duolingo's new Pittsburgh HQ
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Outdoor patios at the entrance of Duolingo’s new East Liberty headquarters. Photo: Chrissy Suttles/Axios
Duolingo's Pittsburgh employees will come together under one roof Monday at a new East Liberty headquarters three years in the making.
Why it matters: Duolingo is doubling its Pittsburgh footprint — embracing in-person work and keeping its global headquarters in the city where it grew into a multibillion-dollar tech firm.
The big picture: The company is moving its roughly 400 Pittsburgh workers from its longtime headquarters at 5900 Penn Ave. to Liberty East at 141 S. St. Clair St., a mixed-use development anchored by Whole Foods on the former Penn Plaza site across the street.
Zoom in: Sean Devlin, Duolingo's head of global real estate strategy, tells Axios the company designed the nearly 150,000-square-foot, four-floor office to accommodate different work styles and neurodiverse employees.
- It has expanded open office areas, added more conference rooms and private work nooks, plus a library, bookable meditation rooms and spaces for new parents.
- Large windows, greenery, a full-service kitchen and spacious dining areas and outdoor patios round it out.
Duolingo's brand is in the details, from streak-shaped light fixtures and artwork featuring its owl mascot, Duo, to framed news clippings chronicling company milestones and conference rooms named after languages offered on its free learning app.
- A skylit auditorium seats 200 for company "parliament" meetings — a nod to the collective name for a group of owls.
Follow the money: Devlin called the project a "significant spend" in the tens of millions but did not give a full investment figure.
- SEC filings show Duolingo signed a 10-year lease for the expanded office that runs through early 2036.
Duo's Taqueria, the popular Mexican restaurant on the ground floor of Duolingo's former headquarters, will stay in its current location, Devlin says, with hopes of expanding its footprint in the future.
Context: Employees previously worked across two locations: the Penn Avenue office and one floor of Liberty East as the firm expanded.
- San Francisco-based Rapt Studio, which designed Duolingo's New York office, designed the space with a largely local team.
What they're saying: Duolingo chief people officer Debica Bhattacharya tells Axios the company believes employees do their best work in person. They're in the office four days a week, up from three last year.
- The new space has room to accommodate more employees as needed but, she says, "we're very conservative in terms of how we grow headcount."
By the numbers: Founded in 2011 by CEO Luis von Ahn and CTO Severin Hacker, Duolingo was Pittsburgh's first tech startup to reach a $1 billion valuation. The company now has more than 850 employees worldwide, about half of them in Pittsburgh.
- In the third quarter of 2026, the company reported revenue rose 14% year over year to $309 million as Duolingo's gamified lessons attract users worldwide and it expands beyond languages.
The bottom line: Pittsburgh "is the cultural epicenter of our company," says Bhattacharya. "We don't intend to ever leave."
