Designing Your New Commercial Space

Once you have purchased a commercial property, there are many considerations in terms of executing the most successful design for your company, your employees, and your clients or customers. Starting with a bird’s eye view, explore your company’s mission statement and how that can be reflected in the design of your space. What is the mark you are trying to leave on the world? What is the ethos of your company and the cultural shift you hope to engender with your products or services? Although you don’t necessarily need your design to be literal, as in a shoe store shaped like a giant shoe, think about the core values and goals of the company and how you can connect that emotional spirit to the physical space. If you were to describe your company in a few adjectives, for example, what would that look like? If your company is modern and tech oriented, that will translate into a different look and feel (think white, glossy, and metal elements) compared to a company that is earthy and environmentally oriented (think wood, greenery, and faux leather elements). A company with a high level of sophistication and formality is going to have a different space than one that is intentionally casual and edgy. How does your branding and logo fit into your physical design? Branding can be as subtle as specific color choices or as bold as a large, stylized, backlit logo in one or more key areas. The general design and the integration of your branding should be seamless.

Once you have established an overall design direction that is consistent with the aim of your company, you will want to sit down with your architect and/or design and marketing teams and plan the layout of your space.  Just as with a home, you want to have the best possible curb appeal and have an impressive entry.  Signage is crucial for businesses in order to serve as advertising and to provide clear wayfinding for clients or customers.  The main entry to your business from the parking lot (if applicable) should be completely obvious to someone who has never been there before.  The combination of signage and lighting can provide added visual interest and cues about where customers should go.  Again, your exterior branding and design aesthetic should be consistent with your company’s ideals and purpose.

The interior of your new commercial space should be an extension of your overall design concept and business model.  Whether you are embarking on a T.I. (tenant improvement) of a brand-new shell building, or if you are remodeling a previous tenant’s space, think about your space as a clean slate.  Get a copy of an empty floor plan with just the exterior walls, restrooms, and elevator so that you can think about how you want to plan your new space.  Just like a home, your commercial space will have private spaces (just for employees) and public spaces for guests or customers.

When designing employee spaces, the overarching goal is to foster well-being among employees, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because of the added benefit of efficiency, productivity, and worker retention.  It’s a win-win.  Historically, Hewlett-Packard was one of the first companies to take employee satisfaction seriously and to implement some of the benefits many employees enjoy today, such as flexible hours (including the ability to work from home), coffee breaks, bonuses, and innovative management styles.  In the more recent dot-com / startup era, companies have gone above and beyond to turn traditional offices into adult playgrounds, with interior slides between building levels, foosball and pool tables, gaming stations, exercise rooms, fully stocked kitchens, and even sleep pods.  Particularly in large tech facilities, the design concept is that work can become a complete destination in and of itself, encouraging employees to stay late, work on weekends, actively collaborate, and take breaks and come back refreshed, given that their work environment has virtually every amenity needed or desired.

For your company, you may or may not choose to include all of these employee amenities, but it is important to have some private space where employees can take a break, eat their lunch, and spend time with their colleagues in an area that feels separate from clients or customers.  If you have current employees, discuss with them what their priorities are and what kind of an environment seems to work best for them.  In terms of the public work spaces of your company, it’s important to consider the goals you have for your employees and how to best facilitate their satisfaction and productivity.  For many companies, employee collaboration fosters creativity, productive brainstorming, and innovative products and solutions.  The “open office” concept was meant to cultivate this spontaneous collaboration, with no barriers between work spaces, dismantling the much-loathed cubicle.  The outcome, however, is that much like a crowded subway car in Manhattan, people contend with the uncomfortable lack of privacy and closeness with others by retreating into themselves, putting on headphones, avoiding eye contact, and creating a psychological barrier that provides a sense of comfort.

It turns out that some type of separation or privacy between work spaces actually allows employees to relax, put their guard down, and then approach their colleagues for collaboration as needed. In modern office design, there are virtually limitless options for fixed and movable components that separate spaces, from sliding, felt laser-cut panels that hang from the ceiling, to slatted wood wall features, to 3-Form resin panels with colors or images, to frosted glass, to movable wall-like storage pieces, and so on. These workspace dividers can serve as art, storage, and/or company branding all at once. Having communal spaces where spontaneous meetings can occur is also helpful, as long as employees also have a sense of a personal, private space that they can call their own apart from the communal space. It is important to remember that design informs behavior, so the culture you are trying to engender is partly shaped by the built environment. The formality or informality of your company, for example, will determine the right balance of private and open / flex space. The desired vibe or culture you create can help to attract new talent to your business and keep the employees who thrive in this setting.

In addition to employee spaces, there are also guest or customer spaces. These areas govern others’ impression of your company and are therefore critical to your brand reputation, customer attraction, and customer loyalty. Walking into your company, a client or customer should be able to describe the type of company you are with a few adjectives, even if they know nothing of your actual products or services. The layout of your space in the public areas will guide your client or customer through the space and clearly indicate where they can find needed personnel or services. Just as employees may be annoyed with answering the same question every day, customers are annoyed with having to ask questions about where to wait for an appointment or reservation, where to find the restroom, how to get to someone’s office, etc. A well-designed layout provides for good flow through the space, adequate passing space in hallways (avoiding bottlenecks), and a sense of openness and visibility. From the exterior design to the interior floor plan, and from color to lighting choices and so forth, everything about your commercial design should be a marriage of brand identity and function, for both your employees and your customers, who are the heart of any company.