If you were around the architecture and interior design profession in 1990, the passage of the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was a very big deal. Passed by the U.S. Congress with bipartisan support and…
Back in December of 2025, which for some reason seems like a lifetime ago, my column in this publication, titled Instigating Innovation, suggested that our industry — work furniture and the workplace segment — was in dire…
The Economic Club of Grand Rapids recently hosted the senior leadership of Haworth to share with their membership the company’s outlook on the industry that plays such a significant role in the…
If you are familiar with Paul Graham, the English/American computer scientist, and you are familiar with the components of his distinctive background, skip the next introductory paragraph and scan to the section…
Recently, officeinsight magazine featured a wonderful story about the design of the new Configura North American workplace headquarters in Grand Rapids. The software company who makes such significant contributions to the service…
Few in our industry would dispute the importance of the convergence of place and work. We all likely ascribe to the posture, pun intended, that place can significantly impact the performance of…
The pattern I noted in last month’s column of referencing some recent book or publication and then drawing out its implications for our workplace profession will finally shatter. This month’s column is,…
These columns, I fear, are assuming a familiar pattern, referencing and/or advocating a publication, past or recent, that has a core insight or a set of ideas that has an application to…
Dieter Rams’ birthday this past May, he turned 93, provided an apt occasion to revisit his “Ten Principles of Good Design.” In an era when superlatives are overused, it is striking that…
A newly published book that got my attention this Spring comes from Prithwiraj Choudhury, a former professor at The Wharton School and currently on the faculty at the Harvard Business School, titled…
For multiple decades Patrick Lencioni has been a popular author, motivational speaker, consultant, and now podcaster, focusing largely on personal and professional improvement and the ways those two arenas interact in the…
A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Andrea Elliott, was quoted as saying, “Proximity changes everything.” She was speaking from her experience of researching and writing stories based on being physically present with the…