High Expectations: Offices for Designers by Designers

Ask any interior designer about the most difficult decision they have ever made, and I would wager at least half of them will tell you it was choosing a paint color for their own home. That is not a joke. Theirs will be a recurring story of many, many, many shades of white; of countless samples and likely of an intervention by a fellow designer to help them make a selection after their spouse or partner has abandoned the effort. (Benjamin Moore, Decorator White is my choice.) Now imagine the challenge of an architecture firm full of designers charged with designing their own office – or twenty of them.

We at Corgan have the overwhelming pressure of practicing what we preach. We work with companies of all sizes, from family-owned small businesses to global brands to create their workplaces. We can firmly tell others that they must align their culture with their places, and that they must express their brand authentically. So, it is imperative that the foundation of our own office design is driven by our culture and brand.

We promise our employees that they will create amazing places at a place that makes them amazing. We have an organization that rewards impact, values enduring relationships and believes that culture is comprised of lots of little daily experiences. Because our policy is that employees work from our offices the majority of the time, with only occasional work from home, it is imperative that our offices are places where all that great work can happen, places where employees feel safe and that they belong. We believe our success is driven by the strength of our interpersonal relationships and that trust (and expertise) is built working side by side. We know that design is a team sport, and that mentorship and on-the-job training are vital to great client service, design, and technical expertise. As our team members are expected to be in our workplaces, we spend a lot of time and resources on them. That’s all great for our culture, but how do values and policies physically show up in design?

• Building Selection: We make our building selections very carefully. Our criteria can vary – are we new to a market and looking for brand recognition, are we on our third location (in a city) and more focused on employee commute times, do we have relationships with building owners in a particular region, etc. If it is a smaller office footprint, we will look for buildings with amenities we can use for meetings or gatherings. We consistently choose high quality buildings that are consistent with our brand.  

• Individual Space: We don’t seat share; we don’t have lockers. Every employee has their own workspace. Keep in mind, we have designed many workplaces with effective seat sharing – there isn’t a right way or wrong way. It’s all about aligning culture, place and policy. The inherent challenge here is deciding how much growth to build into each location. 

  

• Standards and Variables: We have workstation, office, and gathering space standards, but we also respond to the programmatic needs of different offices. Our Aviation practices tend to have large meetings (big projects, lots of partners and consultants). Offices with large Data Center teams tend to need more huddle rooms (so many Teams calls). Model shops, materials libraries, broadcast spaces – these vary based on the office size.  

• Consistent Look with Personality: Aesthetics are another area where we balance standards and variety. We favor neutral carpet and lighter wood across the board, but our offices aren’t meant to look alike: they are meant to feel familiar and welcoming. We want each office to have an identity that reflects its home city as well as custom branding moments that reveal the character of the place. 

  

• Value: We have budgets to maintain, of course, but we focus on value, and we look at that based on how many of our team members will be affected. We tend to spend more on high quality meeting spaces with effective technology to make virtual calls productive. We place a high value on having a common space where our teams can gather for firm events – participating in person and joining a live broadcast across all offices. 

Do we always get everything right? We do not. Is the quality of the coffeemaker in each office a hot debate? Yes, it is. Do some offices have bragging rights over their view? Looking at you, Corgan NYC and Dublin. But if you visited two, three or four Corgan offices, you would see a consistent sense of pride in our places – and you would feel a sense of a culture that values each place and each person. We will keep on tweaking our design, just like we continually evolve our culture. We are, after all, just a bunch of designers.

Editor’s Note: Lindsay Wilson is president of Corgan, a global architecture and design firm with 22 offices and more than 1,300 employees worldwide. The firm works with clients in a variety of sectors including aviation & transportation, data centers, education, government, health, hospitality & retail, mixed-use, multifamily, office, urban, campus & cultural and workplace.