Mountain View, CA, USA
Gen is a global leader in cyber safety. Having recently united a family of brands under the new Gen brand, they wanted their new Silicon Valley hub site to embody the spirit, values and mission of their teams, who dedicate their careers to protecting millions of people worldwide.
Gen challenged HKS to transform a dormant, unoccupied building in Mountain View, California, into a fresh, new site that would bring Gen’s people together both physically and virtually. The new site was intended to connect people, place, and brand in an amenity-rich work environment that would position Gen as a best place to work among its competitors.
Gen’s core purpose of “Powering Digital Freedom” drove HKS’ design, which underscores the company’s innovative, energetic mission-driven culture. Design is a key strategy in establishing the company’s new workplace experience.
When employees and visitors step into the new workplace, the environment activates them with a welcoming atmosphere and streaming music. A concierge conveys the feeling of experiencing an exclusive club. The workplace experience connects people — both employees and guests — to the Gen brand, while also conveying a sense of importance.
Throughout the natural light-filled workplace, the flow between spaces is seamless. Diverse places to gather, from the concierge at entry to an adjacent cafe, to a multi-function space for public events, and informal kitchens interspersed throughout all convey a sense of hospitality. An open floor plan with hoteling spaces and quiet nooks provides choice for different modes of work and small group collaboration.
To minimize the site’s carbon footprint, designers re-used base building architecture, concrete, plumbing, and perhaps most surprisingly: furnishings. In Gen’s new space, 95% of the furniture is re-used. Designers compared the process of furnishing the new headquarters to “shopping in your own closet to achieve quality and authenticity.” That story resonated with Gen for myriad reasons, including the notion of that it had a familial sense.
Experiencing this office through its design, environmental branding and energy, provides a one-of-a-kind Gen experience and changes how the company brings people together. Through a hybrid, people-first solution, the new hub site can flex to meet the daily demands of its workforce with adaptable spaces that flex to accommodate peak occupancy for special events. That’s key, because Gen not only hosts its own workforce but also holds frequent events where leaders including CEO Vincent Pilette, who “loves spending time in that office,” invite other CEOs to the workplace for informal, engaging conversations.
Metro areas throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region of the United States are transforming. They might not be experiencing explosive population growth like those in the Southeast or Southwest, but a new era for innovation, development and design in New York, Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia, is dawning.
Why? In part, because they’re among the most populous and oldest developed places in the country, and in part because people are living and working differently than before.
“There is a convergence of forces requiring cities to adapt to the changing needs of the people they serve,” said HKS Regional Director Shannon Kraus. “Aged infrastructure, population growth, hybrid work and artificial intelligence are all driving a fundamental shift in how people live and work in a post-pandemic society.”
These factors — in addition to pendulating economic conditions — are causing challenges and presenting opportunities for city governments, real estate developers and building owners. HKS is working with these entities to contribute creative solutions for existing and future buildings, so people who live in, work in, and visit the region can thrive.
While the historic buildings in well-established Northeast and Mid-Atlantic cities are central to their charm, many aren’t adequately serving people who need safe, comfortable places to live, learn and receive health care services.
“Most of these cities have old hospitals, schools, and housing stock that they need to reinvest in, or they have to build new, better buildings that support people in a changing post-COVID world,” Kraus said.
Designers from HKS’ Cities & Communities practice, Kraus noted, are working across sectors to revitalize communities and infrastructure with the deep understanding that where people live dramatically impacts their health and well-being.
Individual building repositioning and renovation projects, while a necessity in older cities, can be expensive and labor intensive. Kraus and HKS New York office director Eric Thomas both said that architects and developers are currently engaged with officials in conversations to advocate for better tax incentives that spur development.
They are also having parallel discussions about sustainability, acknowledging that reducing embodied carbon and carbon emissions through design interventions will help unlock the potential of existing buildings.
“There’s a big push for more electric, more sustainable buildings, but our grid is struggling, and it relies a lot on fossil fuels,” Thomas said about New York. “There needs to be a bigger investment in alternative fuel sources, so that as we design and retrofit existing buildings, our electrical grid can handle it.”
As larger repositioning efforts unfurl industry-wide, HKS architects and designers are working to adapt existing buildings for new uses, improve energy efficiency and make enhancements to exceed current building code standards — all tactics that better serve building users and help clients recoup costs of the property investments they’ve already made.
“We’re making sure they’re looking at the big picture. We can have a big impact on the cost related to building systems upgrades, and we partner with engineers who share that philosophy,” Thomas said. “Our clients appreciate that holistic approach.”
In Northeast and Mid-Atlantic business and government centers, the amount of vacant office space has skyrocketed since the pandemic began in 2020. As a result, commercial owners, lessees and developers are seeking to reimagine office environments and office-anchored developments. Designers from HKS Interiors and Mixed-Use practices are helping companies navigate the shift by bringing insights and ideas to office design that aid collaboration in addition to attracting tenants and talent.
“Our teams are helping commercial clients pivot during this challenging time, providing solutions that help them diversify their amenities and offerings,” said Shantee Blain, HKS Washington, D.C.’s office director. Blain added that the commercial downturn has enabled HKS teams to leverage their multidisciplinary experience to bring new ideas to different building types and sectors.
The commercial office downturn is coinciding with an urgent need for more multifamily housing in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region — a need that stems from a variety of factors including the large, densely located populations and residents’ changing needs in the era of hybrid work.
“As the demand for office has cooled, the demand for residential and multifamily has increased. More people want to work from home and are looking for different things,” Kraus said.
New residential construction is taking place in the Washington, D.C. and New York metro areas, where government-led initiatives to generate tens of thousands of housing units in recent and upcoming years are in full swing. The region is also a prime location for new mixed-use destinations and transit-oriented developments with dining, public space, local retail, entertainment and varied housing options.
Such mixed-use multifamily properties and larger developments are integral to the future of design and development, according to HKS leaders.
“In the industry, I hope we’re going toward doing more of what I call ‘hybrid buildings,’ where a place we design doesn’t have just one typology and ‘mixed-use’ is how you describe all buildings,” Blain said. “These types of places invigorate communities and give back to their residents.”
The pandemic changed what people need from the places where they live and work. And there is yet another force drastically impacting work modes and development in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: cloud-based technology.
With advances in cloud computing and remote networks making it easier for people to work remotely or in hybrid settings, the demand for highly equipped offices — at home and in corporate spaces — is surging. Cloud computing and widescale adoption of artificial intelligence are also leading to astronomical increases in the need for high-performing data centers worldwide.
HKS leaders said that with the recent Mission Critical practice expansion, the firm is further establishing itself at the vanguard of data center design. HKS is creating new campuses to handle large server and computing loads in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and beyond. Introducing new talent and skills into the firm’s global base is helping design teams provide more services and develop inventive solutions for these vital facilities.
“We are developing new ways of designing data centers in the region, uniting the skills of talented mission critical designers with professionals that have experience designing a broader range of building types,” Blain said.
HKS designers work swiftly and smartly to design and deliver data centers and operations facilities, in order to set trends in sustainability, building performance and innovation.
“It doesn’t have to be data centers for miles,” said Mike Drye, HKS Richmond’s office director. “We’re in this next generation of thinking, and we don’t just have to repeat what’s been done. We can think creatively about it.”
Regional HKS leaders said their teams are coupling that kind of creative energy with local experience in health, government, sports and commercial design to build connections and meet the needs of communities throughout the region as they evolve.
“When I think about the types of work our firm and office does in academic health and collegiate sports and the opportunities around our region, I see tremendous potential for us to leverage all that HKS does more broadly,” Drye said.
The area’s abundance of academic health, research, and education institutions — many of which are connected to major universities — are consolidating and growing. These institutions need state-of-the-art facilities for medical services, teaching and learning, housing, research and athletics. The natural connections and design overlaps among these building types mean that HKS designers can provide top-tier services based on deep knowledge of a variety of practice areas. They can translate their experience to new and innovative designs.
“The conversation we like to have with clients starts with the question: how else can we serve you?” Thomas said. “We have subject matter experts and talented folks who can assist with student housing, classroom buildings, sports facilities and laboratories, including teaching and research space.”
In addition to growing its Education and Life Science practices, HKS is also expanding other practices in the region including Hospitality, Culture and Senior Living. Projects stemming from these practices will attract new people and provide more vital community resources.
As Northeast and Mid-Atlantic cities simultaneously grapple with their history and future, HKS leaders said that their teams will draw on the firm’s global talent base and local relationships to design spaces and places that uniquely suit their surroundings.
Thomas said that in New York, multidisciplinary design teams are leading community resilience efforts and partnering with institutions to enrich the city’s cultural offerings. Blain said she and other D.C. staff members are inspired by the District’s historic buildings and human scale, which helps them create welcoming destinations. And in Richmond, Drye said colleagues are building relationships with organizations to tap into the local artistic and entrepreneurial spirit so they can help the growing city develop authentically.
These HKS teams are transforming homes, offices, learning and healing environments, and places for connection so they can weather current and future economic, environmental and technological conditions. Working nimbly and collaboratively, designers will contribute to a resilient future for people throughout the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
“We lean into our design expertise and bring forward innovative ideas, and a lot of cities in our market require that,” Kraus said. “The collision of old and new here is exciting, and we’re leading change in the built environment that supports our communities’ long-term well-being and growth.”
Dallas, TX, USA
As pandemic-induced restrictions began to lift, Newmark sought to consolidate its Dallas-Fort Worth offices into a single location in Uptown Dallas to improve and elevate the employee experience. To help show Newark what the Future of Work could be, the HKS design team was challenged to create a space where a new culture could be born and nurtured by uniting different groups in a single, highly collaborative and client-facing office.
The HKS design team integrated end user feedback before construction began by presenting the project company-wide to future users to assist management efforts. In addition, the team used HKS’ Future of Work research to inform much of the planning of spaces.
Newmark also wanted to incorporate a Wellness program by providing wellness room / focus rooms, and connection to the surrounding areas near the building. The Link was specifically chosen as the location for this project because it provides easy access to all commuters by car or public transit. The building is in a walkable part of Uptown where biking and walking throughout the day is commonplace. In planning the layout of the floorplan, we used intuitive wayfinding to make it easy for employees and visitors to find their way around and understand when they are transitioning from a communal open space to a more focused working environment.
Additionally, there are multiple locations throughout the office with access to water and nutritional snacks. A requirement of the program called for many private offices to be located on the exterior walls of the building, however all private offices and meeting rooms have glass storefronts, allowing natural light and connecting views to the outdoors to spill farther into the space, giving access to all employees. The HKS team was also strategic in locating smaller open collaboration areas in the building with direct views to downtown Dallas and other city landmarks.
Because The Link is a first-generation space, meaning that no one had occupied the space previously, this created a unique opportunity to utilize and highlight the existing structure on ceilings and flooring pathways. It also reduced resource use and showcases the space’s architecture in an elegant way. Additionally, the HKS team specified materials and vendors with a transparency and commitment to sustainability measures.
At a time when the physical workplace and returning to the office was in question, the HKS design team’s approach was highly collaborative, based in research, and backed by a thorough discovery process that consisted of multiple interviews and visioning sessions. The goal was to foster a vibrant culture that would speak to Newmark’s brand and values, by presenting to both its employees and clients with a high-performance space that welcomes all and is a catalyst for change.
An estimated 50,000 people met in Chicago June 10-12 to attend NeoCon, an exposition billed as the world’s leading platform for commercial interior design.
During the event, HKS interior designers and researchers joined industry thought leaders to present ideas about the role of design in creating innovative, inclusive spaces where people can be healthy, productive and thrive.
Read on for significant moments from the HKS team at NeoCon 2024.
1. Critical Actions Interior Designers Can Take Now to Reduce Global Carbon Emissions
HKS’ Director of Citizen HKS and Sustainable Design Leader, Lisa Adams, participated in two events hosted by METROPOLIS. Lisa joined a panel discussion on Circular Design and Positive Impact, and she contributed to the Sustainability Lab Leadership Summit, where designers came together to discuss how the industry and large global firms like Google are integrating sustainability into their business models.
At the summit, Lisa summarized the key actions interior designers can take now to reduce global carbon emissions:
2. The Design Challenge of our Time is the Design of Time.
In a featured session entitled IIDA Collective Design LIVE: The Future of Experience, HKS’ Global Sector Director of Innovation, Dr. Upali Nanda, said, “The design challenge of our time is the design of time. Experience is the value proposition for designers. We must ask ourselves: what is the return on experience for our clients?”
To illustrate this concept, Dr. Nanda told a story she dubbed the “Applesauce Moment.” The story begins with the process of researching the lived experience of nurses at ProMedica Toledo Hospital, as HKS prepared to design the new Generations of Care Tower. Until we researched a day in the life of the hospital’s nurses, we did not realize how much time nurses were spending walking from one place to another to get key supplies. Our “Aha!” moment came when we watched a single nurse walk 1.2 miles to deliver meds, and then a patient asked her for applesauce. To get it, she had to walk another twenty minutes–both ways. Until we researched her lived experience, we had no idea that this problem existed. We were able to design a new hospital with nurses’ walking time front of mind, and we reduced their walking time by half.
For nurses and patients at ProMedica, the return on design means more time for care and less time walking to retrieve supplies.
3. Why Interior Design Matters Now More Than Ever
The International Interior Design Association, IIDA, hosts its annual meeting during NeoCon. This year, one of our esteemed new colleagues, Ronnie Belizaire, an HKS Principal, delivered her final speech as President of IIDA’s International Board of Directors. She said:
Interior Design continues to solve some of society’s biggest challenges through the built environment, while creating beautiful and contextual spaces that make people feel seen, heard, celebrated and included as it tries to answer the “WHY” of it all.
As I end my tenure as the President of IIDA’s International Board of Directors, my great hope is that this association continues to make space for all its members and designers everywhere. I hope that IIDA’s members can proudly boast the mantra of “I am IIDA” because the truth of the matter is IIDA wouldn’t exist without YOU…YOU ARE IIDA!
4, Why Go to the Office?
One of the more startling statistics shared at NeoCon 2024 came from Sarah Silva, Vice President of Tenant Representation at JLL, who noted that in 2024, only one commercial office building opened in Chicago: Salesforce Tower. The big question now is: what makes going to the office worth it? Today’s office has to offer an experience that employees just can’t get anywhere else.
In Offices for the New Work Reality, HKS’ Director of Commercial Interiors Kate Davis argued that people today don’t have to go to the office to work. So why should they? Mandates are one option, but they aren’t the best option for employers hoping to engage top talent.
A key problem in the design of today’s offices? Davis singled out a surprising and controversial culprit: workstations. She argued that by default, today’s office workers spend most of their days at them, and it’s not helping either productivity or engagement.
Designers should think about how to create places that encourage employees to design the time that they choose to spend at the office. She argued that we know it’s possible, because it happens intuitively—yet also by design—for college students. College campuses encourage students to do different things in different places throughout the course of a day. How can offices do the same? How can we design offices that help people choose places where they can work smarter and better?
As workers ask themselves, “why go to the office?” designers must amplify the value that people get from spending time in the office. It’s the key to designing workplaces that realize value for employees and corporate leaders alike. To learn about an office designed for the future of work, read more.
5. We’re HiP! Or at least one of us is: Meena Krenek.
Interior Design magazine honored Meena Krenek, HKS Global Practice Director, Venues Interiors, as the 2024 HiP Experiential Design Leader. The magazine’s annual HiP awards celebrate the most innovative products and people in commercial design. To learn how Meena brings storytelling and emotion to interior spaces, read more.
In addition to this honor, Interior Design also included Ana Pinto-Alexander, FIIDA, HKS Partner and Global Director of Interiors, in two exclusive roundtable discussions led by Cindy Allen, Chief Design Officer of Sandow Design Group: one focused on wellness, and another on the importance of connection with the design community.
6. Sad you missed NeoCon? You can view more events online.
In addition to the in-person events highlighted above, two virtual sessions led by HKS experts – on the design of workspace and health care environments – are available through September 13 via the NeoCon website. Register online by September 11 to view these sessions and receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit.
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Commercial design leaders will gather in Chicago June 10-12 for NeoCon 2024. The annual industry showcase is known as a pivotal opportunity to connect, share ideas and celebrate commercial design.
This year’s NeoCon event is presented in part by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA). Ronnie Belizaire, HKS Studio Practice Leader and Ana Pinto-Alexander, HKS Partner and Global Sector Director, Interiors, serve on the IIDA International Board of Directors as President and Vice President, respectively.
Belizaire and Pinto-Alexander are among several HKS design and research experts who will be participating as speakers at NeoCon 2024. Three featured presentations, a roundtable discussion, two panel discussions and two virtual CEU sessions will include HKS industry thought leaders. Registration is now open on the NeoCon website. Please join us for the following events:
Monday, June 10, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CDT, NeoCon Presentation Studio, Fl 2
Speakers: Upali Nanda, HKS Partner and Global Sector Director, Innovation; Lauren Rottet, President and Founding Principal, Rottet Studio; Brian Graham, Founder and Creative Director, Graham Design; Lori Mukoyama, Global Leader of Hospitality and Principal, Gensler
Moderator: Mark Bryan, Senior Foresight Manager, Future Today Institute
How is experiential design changing the face of design at large, and how will experience intersect and empower design and designers? At this once-a-year live episode of the Collective Design webinar series, IIDA presents top minds in design who approach experiential design through a variety of lenses, from neuroscience to hospitality to future forecasting.
Offices for the New Work Reality
Monday, June 10, 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. CDT, NeoCon Presentation Studio, Fl 2
Speakers: Kate Davis, HKS Partner and Global Practice Director, Commercial Interiors; Eva Greene, Director of Client Experience, Cresset Capital; Jason Hall, Creative Director, Charlie Green Studio; Sarah Silva, Vice President, Tenant Representation, JLL; Paul Tokarz, Partner, WestPoint Financial Group
Moderator: Jan Parr, Contributor, Crain’s Chicago Business
Occupancy in downtown Chicago offices is hovering at just over 55%. Hybrid models of work – with employees working from home part time and at an office part time – seem to be here to stay. Hear from designers, executives in the trenches and leasing agents who have a bird’s-eye view of making (or remaking) spaces that reflect the nature of work today. Find out what has worked – and what hasn’t – in encouraging employees to come back to the office. (Hint: It’s more complicated than installing a ping-pong table.)
Diversity in Practice
Tuesday, June 11, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CDT, NeoCon Presentation Studio, Fl 2
Speakers: Ronnie Belizaire, HKS Principal and Studio Practice Leader (IIDA International Board President 2023-2024); Jason Pugh, Global Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Design Manager, Principal, Gensler; Pascale Sablan, Chief Executive Officer, New York Studio, Adjaye Associates (NOMA Global President 2023-2024)
Moderator: Joseph Cephas, Senior Vice President, Novità Communications
Progressing from making public statements to enacting practical equity programs is essential in creating a more diverse environment. Novità Senior Vice President Joseph Cephas will lead a panel of design experts in exploring strategies to make firms and the projects they produce more inclusive. With a focus on creating tangible, measurable results, the discussion will examine how diversity initiatives can lead to positive change.
Tuesday, June 11, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. CDT, DesignScene, Space 112
Join Ana Pinto-Alexander, HKS Partner and Global Sector Director, Interiors, and other industry design leaders as they explore the future landscape of Health + Wellness design across all commercial segments.
Moderators: Jen Renzi, Executive Editor, Interior Design; Whitney Austin Gray, Senior Vice President of Research, International Well Building Institute
Monday, June 10, 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. CDT, METROPOLIS Sustainability Lab, Suite 1120, FL 11
Tuesday, June 11, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. CDT, METROPOLIS Sustainability Lab, Suite 1120, FL 11
Join Lisa Adams, HKS Director of Citizen HKS & Sustainable Design Leader, Interiors, in panel discussions at the Metropolis Sustainability Lab – an immersive exhibit and hub dedicated to empowering you to make a positive impact on both people and the planet.
Registered participants can log in to the NeoCon Learning Hub to view the following sessions on demand June 10 through September 13. NeoCon 2024 virtual CEU registration closes September 11.
Are We Addicted to Our Workstations? How Design Can Improve Our Brain Health
Speakers: Liz Fallon, HKS Studio Practice Leader, Commercial Interiors; Susan Chung, HKS Associate Director, Enterprise Research; Jennifer Zientz, Director of Programs & Head of Clinical Services, Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas
HKS and the Center for BrainHealth at UT Dallas partnered to study the relationship between brain healthy behaviors and the design of workplace environments. Our research showed that multitasking impairs brain health, 43% of employees multitask frequently and 60% are dissatisfied with their control of their work environment. Employees with a hybrid in-office/work-from-home schedule say they do some types of work best at home vs. the office. What keeps us from applying that thinking within our offices? Our dependence on the workstation prevents us from asking what we need to do before deciding where best to do it. Join us as we discuss how brain healthy workplaces can unlock new potential in commercial real estate.
Rethinking the Waiting Experience in Healthcare Environments
Speaker: Diana Araoz-Fraser, HKS Studio Design Leader, Interiors
The Health design industry has been sharing trends with Hospitality and Workplace for some time to create health facility spaces that feel less clinical. The possibilities to improve users’ experience through design are nearly endless. How can designers break the mold of a typical waiting area to craft spaces that welcome new patients, feel more humane and enhance well-being? How can we create spaces that use technology to educate and liberate, and that feel more like amenities to the health care experience, without increasing the cost of the project? Rethinking the user experience in health care is critical to transforming clinical environments into holistic and supportive spaces that generate positive outcomes for all: new and existing patients, their caregivers and the facility’s clinical and support staff.
Huntsville, Alabama
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is expanding operations at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama with new facilities dedicated to attracting and developing a rising generation of technically advanced agents — a “graduate school” for the cyber crimefighter. The FBI envisioned a 240-acre Science and Technology District with a central building for cybersecurity crimefighter training and education plus offices that would support its critical mission to protect Americans now and into the future.
HKS and its design-build partner at Clark Construction Group committed to creating the FBI Innovation Center as a signature centerpiece for the new campus. The three-story building includes classrooms, offices, digital laboratories, and an attached training center. Together, these facility functions enhance the FBI’s capacity for research and development as well as its operational, tactical, and technological capabilities.
Early in the design-build process, the HKS team devised a plan to decouple the workplace and training components of the building, ensuring that each was distinct yet unified with the other for a cohesive design. The academic and workplace building is clad in glass and metal panels, and offers a welcoming environment for agents, trainees and government officials. The practical training facility has a unique metal fin design and acts as a forward-looking extension from the primary building.
In addition to designing the Innovation Center, HKS also worked with landscape architects and civil engineers to amend the FBI’s master plan so that adjustments would support better building integration into the overall campus. As construction on the main building proceeded, the team worked closely with Clark Construction Group to adjust design elements, ensuring critical program features could be realized in keeping with the latest FBI security standards.
The Innovation Center is designed to optimize energy performance, limit impact on environmental resources, and provide a healthy environment for those who learn and work there. FBI is a nationwide leader in the adoption of Design-Build Done Right® —the best practices of the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) — and with these practices, the Innovation Center sets a new standard of design excellence. The building is designed to attract and retain top talent for the FBI including young professionals who desire contemporary training and workplace amenities. As a home and training ground for a new wave of cybersecurity crimefighters, the building will play a large part in helping the FBI protect Americans throughout the 21st century.
Global Practice Director, Government & Alternative Project Delivery
Partner
FAIA, FDBIA
Dallas
Global Practice Director, LINE
Partner
AIA
San Francisco
Architect
Principal
AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Chicago
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Consider this increasingly common story of an employee working in an open office:
The lease on your old office was expiring, and your CEO chose to invest in a new space. You were invited to design visioning sessions at the beginning of the design process, so you know that many people were involved in choosing the new location–and guiding the design. You have a slightly longer commute now, but this is balanced by your excitement to work in the new space with your team and your friends. And the mock-ups look so much nicer and brighter than your old space.
Your first couple of weeks working at the new office were a blur. Everyone is acclimating to the new design and its amenities, adjusting to the different commutes, discovering new restaurants for lunch and bars for after-work happy hour.
But you’ve noticed that something else is starting to happen.
When the new design was unveiled, you remembered that there were several new spaces in the office intended for specific needs such as socializing or taking mental breaks. After a month, you see that people are working in more spaces than they did in the old office. But at the same time, you realize that your coworkers are using many of those new spaces for Zoom calls, socializing, and focus work—and they’re doing it in the same space, at the same time.
Months later, you notice that people have settled into their routines. They have found their individual spots in the office where they prefer to camp out for most of the day—and you have, too. Your office was designed to have fewer workstations than employees, so you start coming in earlier to secure one. (Wasn’t there supposed to be an app to reserve seats?)
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be, and you can’t help but think: Shouldn’t we have seen this coming?
Despite having access to new spaces designed for specific needs, you are defaulting to a workstation, just like in the old office. You pop into one of the other spaces every now and then for a team meeting. You question whether your flexible new office is too flexible? Although you enjoy the new design, you are still distracted by others when you’re trying to focus, and you are interrupting others when you’re on a Zoom call or when you’re talking to a team member at your desk.
You wonder: Why did I come to the office? What’s the point? What are we doing wrong?
Our bodies and brains evolved to spend energy efficiently – this helped us survive as a species – but we also evolved to spend quite a bit of energy responding to threats or seizing opportunities. In other words, we thrive when we have a balance between serenity and stress. We need both experiences to perform at our best. We need places that support higher levels of energy, and we also need spaces for quiet recovery and rejuvenation.
If we’re spending too much time and energy avoiding distractions or searching for spaces to work effectively, we feel conflicted because our needs may be at odds with others’. We should expend energy more wisely, and we can do that if we can easily locate office spaces to perform at peak levels. We need to leverage different spaces to critique, present, collaborate; and we need clearly defined spaces to recover, relax, and focus. How do we do it? Why aren’t we doing this already?
When we default to sitting at a workstation all day, we default to unproductive patterns. We must break our bad habits. That’s why it’s time to “break” the workstation.
Here’s what’s happening. The new design should ideally create something called ‘experiential blindness’ for employees, at least initially. Essentially, this means that because an employee does not perceive a workstation is at their disposal, the rest of the spaces in the office have the potential to be remade in their perceived utility. In other words, the best way to break that habit is to remove the workstation entirely – this helps all the other intentionally designed spaces shine. This doesn’t mean it’s best to remove all the desks and monitors and chairs – it means that the concept of the default workstation can be broken most easily if an employee doesn’t perceive a default workstation at all.
A common hurdle here is when a design compromise is struck – instead of removing all of the bays of workstations, the new design offers some of the bays of workstations employees are so used to seeing. So instead of creating experiential blindness, the employees just see a hot commodity.
When experiential blindness is successfully created in a new office space, it serves as a critical moment for employees trying to establish productive behavior patterns. When an employee is trying to understand and learn where they should be doing their work best in a new space, they spend brain energy and resources, but it leads toward a pattern of more productive spending of limited energy to work smarter in the long run. In other words, they are learning how to best spend energy on the front end of portions of the day to best match their specific needs with the intended use of various spaces. We can call this “affordance hunting” – and it can save us precious energy and lower our stress levels throughout the day at the office when done successfully.
Fortunately, we’re quite adept at affordance hunting. Think back to your time in college and recall a time when you were tasked with a group project. If you lived in a dorm, you likely didn’t default to one meeting location. Instead, you first asked yourself and your team what you needed to accomplish, and how? In other words, what were the resources you needed, and what kind of environment was conducive to the work you needed to do, all while not being at odds with other students. You then chose a location and a time to meet that solved that problem.
Common sense, right? Well, not in the modern open office, where our learned history of behaviors are making change more difficult, especially when there’s a default workstation at our disposal.
When done successfully, this type of system could very well be the difference between workers spending unnecessary energy dealing with distractions throughout the day, and the ability to spend energy only when it made sense – planning their work around a collection of office spaces where they’re able to perform different work activities better than anywhere else, including at home.
When we argue for the need to break the workstation, implicit in that statement – and critical to the success of the workplace – is the need to break the associated history of learned behaviors that have become norms, too. We’ve been tethered to our default habits just as much as we’ve been tethered to our default workstations. Real, adaptive change will take more than a new design of the physical space. It will depend just as much on how we design our time – how we align where we work at a given time based on our needs. Yet this combination cannot happen in a vacuum. Those new behaviors will also need the support of real, organizational buy-in and communication to break free. Working our best will take all of this – when management and leadership instill and model those habits, in space, and in time, we can unlock the true potential of the office.
Washington, DC, USA
Howard University, a historically Black university located in Washington, D.C., has a 155-year legacy rooted in the District’s Shaw neighborhood. As it develops its portfolio of properties in the area, the University is creating a new heart of the neighborhood with vibrant and diverse mixed-use properties, housing, and public gathering spaces that connect to its historic campus and honor the history of its community.
Located five blocks from the center of the Howard campus, East Towers will be a mixed-use multifamily residential building with 500 housing units and locally curated retail establishments.
HKS, its development partners at LOWE, and local minority-owned real estate firm FGLA created initial proposals for Howard University developments with thoughtful consideration of the neighborhood’s history as one of the centers of Black life in Washington. With goals of inclusion and sensitive place-making, those proposals led the University to directly award the team the East Towers project. The design approach balances sound development strategies that maximize land value with unique programming and placemaking that reinforce Howard University’s mission-oriented values and vision, along with the needs of the community.
The overall vision for the project takes its cues from the fabric of the neighborhood, beginning with a reimagining of W Street Northwest as a new neighborhood social center that promotes urban connectivity to the site. A courtyard created by the “C” shaped plan allows the building to bring the neighborhood’s energy further into the center of the site and the ground floor lobby. The courtyard’s exterior architectural identity incorporates a robust balcony expression and façade that allows for increased natural light within the residential units.
The site’s full block footprint in the heart of Shaw’s U Street Corridor also informs the architecture of the building. The project’s significant perimeter façades to the east, north and west take on an elegant yet restrained and cost-effective approach that responds to the narrow secondary streets surrounding the site. Crafted with brick and glass, the perimeter is contextually responsive and its visually calm expression contrasts with the more vibrant social heart of the courtyard.
Retail spaces on the ground floor will bring new opportunities for economic growth in the neighborhood and residential offerings include studios, one, two and three-bedroom units, many with balconies overlooking the interior courtyard.
One of the building’s signature design elements is suspended 10 stories above the main entry — the rooftop pool features skylights in its floor, allowing pedestrians below opportunities to catch rays of sunshine and a glimpse of swimmers above, while the building’s amenity-rich penthouse level will have indoor and outdoor lounges, grills, and casual seating areas to promote social interaction.
East Towers is an investment in the future of the neighborhood that Howard University has called home for more than a century and a half. The development team is engaging local and minority-owned business partners throughout the project’s development. Eight percent of the building is dedicated to affordable housing and the design and construction teams will employ at least 50 Howard student interns.
The building will bring quality housing and public space to a rapidly changing neighborhood and foster connections between local residents and University students, staff and visitors. The building will support the overarching theme of “Creating Community” that drove the initial development proposal and align with Howard University’s strategic pillars to serve the community through collaborative partnerships.
The project will be transformative while also reflecting the unique history, heritage and legacies of the Shaw neighborhood through art, programming and branding. It will honor the significant and pioneering economic, cultural, social and institutional contributions of a proud and accomplished community of African Americans, many of which were associated with Howard University.
Creative people from around the world will gather March 8-16 in Austin, Texas for the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and festivals. This seminal event is known for unparalleled opportunities for discovery, learning, professional development and networking.
Two sessions at SXSW 2024 will feature HKS design and research professionals. If you are attending SXSW, please join HKS at one of the following sessions:
Kicking Our Workstation Habit to Improve Brain Health
March 12, 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. CT, Austin Marriott Downtown, Waller Ballroom DEF
Speakers: Liz Fallon, HKS Studio Practice Leader, Commercial Interiors; Casey Lindberg, HKS Senior Design Researcher; Avi Rajagopal, SANDOW Design Group; Tope Sadiku, The Kraft Heinz Company
Our workplaces enable multitasking and it’s taking a toll on our health. Research shows that multitasking impairs brain health, 43% of employees multitask frequently and 60% are dissatisfied with their control of their work environment. Employees on a flexible schedule say they do some types of work best at home vs. the office. What keeps us from applying that thinking within our offices? We’ve got to start asking what we need to do before deciding where best to do it. Join our panel discussion to learn how kicking the workstation habit will lead to better brain health and renewed purpose for the office.
Longevity Cities: Optimal Environments for Healthy Aging
March 12, 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. CT, Austin Marriott Downtown, Waterloo Ballroom 3
Speakers: Upali Nanda, Global Practice Director, Research, and Partner at HKS; Rajiv Ahuja, Milken Institute; Harris Eyre, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy; Marc Freedman, CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)
Longevity cities could hold the key to longer, healthier lives. Listen to experts testing the interaction between health, environment and social factors that impact how we age. Their longevity vision prioritizes brain health to achieve economic prosperity and social progress. They also embrace neighborhood designs that promote healthy behaviors and intergenerational connections. From health services to connected communities, this panel will reveal the power of age-inclusive cities to foster healthy, more resilient lives.
