Company culture as design driver

The pandemic gave Morning Consult time to deliberate about how its DC headquarters should function.

"If you are not designing for the true purpose of a space today, it will fail immediately," says Gensler Design Director Jessica Maples, architect on the project. "Morning Consult was very intentional about having everything be well-dressed, well-prepared and finely tuned for the sake of people first."

The firm's facilities and leadership teams examined the pillars of their company culture, how they could improve employee experience and the ways they could take advantage of their new space's floorplate to accommodate diverse work styles.

Project goals included:

• Warm, engaging and sophisticated design

• Multifunctional spaces that could adapt and flex over time

• Diverse space types to accommodate different work styles

• Good sight lines with equal access to outdoor views

• Timeless high-quality furniture that lasts, with easy maintenance

The right balance

Morning Consult looked to foster a creative environment, ripe for collaboration, while also elevating the experience for their employees.

The welcome area is a prime example. It includes reception, a lounge and a café – operating as a mixed-use space suitable for a coffee break, lunch, all-staff events, or after-hour work events.

Shared spaces peppered throughout the office offer opportunities for employees to work together and casually connect. Meanwhile, private offices double as huddle rooms, providing privacy and focus for when collaborative tasks arise. Unassigned seating and ample flexibility let people work where and how they want, whether they’re coming in two days a week or five.

"We envisioned what people would look like moving and working in this office," says Jeighdeane King, Morning Consult's Head of Spaces and Facilities. "To adapt to a diversity of work styles, there are a lot of alternative ways for people to be in this space."

The design team also took cues from the retailer's approach of "serving people and graciously welcoming them into the design." The tiles, light fixtures, colours and restored terracotta façade all give nods to the historic nature of the building.

Collaborative design in real time

When MillerKnoll came aboard as a furniture partner, the design process took a collaborative shape. "I really do think that everybody on this team understood the assignment, including those of us who didn't exactly know what that was," King says. "It evolved through those first initial weeks of schematic design and into design development."

Tina Li, design manager at MillerKnoll dealer Bialek, used space planning tools to show options
for furniture, materials, colours and finishes – allowing her to design in the moment alongside 
King and Maples.

“Whether we were in a finish meeting or design meeting, we were able to visualise immediately what was possible and also to layout and make adjustments as needed,” Li says.

The products the team specified included Cosm Chairs, Eames Aluminium Group Chairs and height-adjustable Nevi Link Sit-Stand Desks from Herman Miller, Leeway Stools from Geiger and a variety of seating from Knoll, including the Saarinen Conference Chair – as well as products from other brands from the MillerKnoll collective.

"A workplace should exceed the expectations of the staff and be a future-forward response to the new hybrid workplace," Maple says. The result speaks for itself, as King adds: "It's nice to hear 
from employees that the world we imagined came to life the way we expected."