A Space Odyssey

Firms Look at Office Design with New Eyes to Reduce Stress, Increase Efficiency

Earthy colors, a selection of fine teas, water sculptures bubbling quietly in a corner, and whimsical images of butterflies hidden in various nooks and crannies.

A description of the newest trendy café in Northampton? Not quite.

This is the scene upon walking into Dr. Sue Keller’s dental office, Strong and Healthy Smiles, in Florence. Keller moved into her new offices in April of last year, leasing space in the former Florence Sewing Machine building.

Before she opened her doors to patients, however, she hired an architect to help her maximize the space’s historical strengths. She also hired a color consultant, a feng shui expert, a marketing and branding firm, and a ‘design and ergonomics specialist’ with experience in the dental industry.

The result is anything but clinical. Subdued shades of peach and amber adorn the walls, with a little magenta here and there to add some personality. The reception area isn’t furnished with straight-back chairs, but rather with full recliners, and the hallway to treatment rooms is lined with seashell-inspired sconces emitting diffused light.

Keller said it has long been her goal to create such an environment — one that alleviates stress for patients who otherwise would often want to be anywhere but at the dentist.

“I had a feeling for what I wanted: something soft and gentle with no hard edges, inspired by nature,” she said. “The result is something that doesn’t look like a medical office at all.”

Amy Jamrog, a financial planner with the Jamrog Group, part of the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, also does business out of an historical space — the former National Felt Building in Northampton. And she, too, has transformed her offices into a modern mecca of peace and tranquility, for reasons that are similar to Keller’s.

“Having a financial conversation is already uncomfortable,” said Jamrog. “The last thing people need is to walk into a stuffy atmosphere.”

That said, visitors to her offices will notice a blend of lime green, blue, and turquoise as they enter the Jamrog Group. In the lobby, magazines that all-too-often announce the bad news of the month have been replaced with inspirational books and other light reading.

In Jamrog’s own office, the absence of a traditional desk is notable, and across the hall in the conference room, a bright red, the color of prosperity, has been used in the décor, including two paintings of cranes (they also signify good fortune).

“Everything was by design, to make this as friendly and welcoming a space as possible,” Jamrog said of her office’s unique color schemes and layout. “I know it will be a great appointment when a client walks in for the first time and says, ‘this is not what I expected.’”

Taking the Leap

Keller and Jamrog are two business owners who’ve created new office environments using the various, diverse tenets of a trend that’s gathering steam across the country.

The notion of modern office design to create various outcomes — greater productivity and reduced stress among them — is one being seen across many different industries in both urban and more rural areas, and, in many cases, can lead to major cultural shifts within companies of all sizes.

It draws from various disciplines, including architecture, organizational development, and interior design, and is being used to affect more than just an office’s look and appeal. Rather, modern office design practices are also being utilized to improve the bottom line.

Alonzo Canada, directing associate at Jump Associates — a unique firm with a national reach that creates growth strategies for clients, including through office design — has seen the effects of this trend first-hand. Headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., with additional offices in New York City, Canada said Jump works with companies of various sizes in a wide range of industries across the country, from financial giants to retail outfits, and increasingly, a wide range of businesses are looking for ways they can foster change within their four walls.

“Typically, companies approach us when they’re ready to enter new markets or explore new offerings — and usually, they’ve tried a couple of things already that didn’t produce the results they wanted,” said Canada. “Ultimately, we help them achieve their objectives through equal parts social research — who they are, who their clients are, and what both need — as well as engineering and design, and business planning. We help companies become more innovative, and to define what types of culture are needed to build broadly within specific business units.

“That’s where the space design component comes in most often, because that’s where we affect culture and behavior.”

In the past, Jump has designed office, product, and strategy overhauls as part of broader efforts to affect future growth and a company’s overall identity. Clients include Nike, Target, Procter & Gamble, and Hewlett Packard (HP), among many others. Perhaps the best example of design as a way to affect culture, however, can be seen in Jump’s own offices, dubbed JumpSpace.

The property is made up not of departments, for instance, but ‘neighborhoods,’ which allow staff within various disciplines to work together. The company also has an extensive library, ‘front porches’ where teams can post ideas and images relevant to specific projects (thus prompting feedback from passersby), and zen rooms, where employees can work alone quietly or even relax with a cup of tea or a quick siesta.

The building didn’t feature a staircase before Jump Associates moved in, but Canada said stairs and escalators have been proven to have such a profound effect on idea generation that a set of stairs, painted bright orange, was quickly installed.

There are other aspects of JumpSpace that serve as a showcase of ideas for other firms to consider, said Canada, listing glass partitions in project rooms to allow natural light to filter in, ‘enclaves’ for impromptu meetings or group work, and two outdoor patios.

One of Canada’s favorite features at JumpSpace is the Traincar Café, a space modeled after the dining cars on locomotives that doesn’t offer food, but instead an intimate space in which to work, hold informal meetings, and generate new ideas — which are scrawled on the provided napkins at each table.

“I’m proud of the Traincar Café,” he said. “It’s modeled after the typical art-deco diner tables and booths of the 1950s, although the furniture is contemporary. It’s familiar and cozy, and oddly enough, it’s one of the most-used spaces at Jump. People naturally gravitate there, and start working there.”

Canada added that these types of environments are a prime example of how design can be used to reach goals and benchmarks.

“Ultimately, they help a company to achieve a strategic objective,” he said. “Often in today’s modern workplace, facilities managers think about space with the wrong frame of mind, pitting economical, efficient use of space against productivity, and those two get in the way of each other. Progressive companies see that it’s OK to take a hit in areas such as adding square footage or amenities, because they know they will make that loss up in the work produced by happy, healthy employees.”

All Projects Great and Small

The changes need not always be major undertakings — Jamrog has injected a bit of fun into her office environment by allowing each staff member to add their own playlists to a community iPod that plays throughout the day.

“No Muzak here,” she said. “It’s all funky, fun, and light.”

Adding to that injection of fun in the workplace are brimming bowls of chocolate candies and a gong near the conference room, which new clients are encouraged to ring when they sign on, and staff are likely to tap when certain successes have been achieved.

“It might take some clients aback at first, but it’s just one way that we’ve made celebration a normal part of the workplace,” Jamrog said.

For Keller, who had comfort in the front of her mind when planning her dental office, the intrigue of a gong is replaced with home- or hotel-grade sinks for patients and staff — striking glass bowls with elegant gold fixtures and the same nature theme that permeates the space — accompanied by neat pyramids of rolled hand towels.

Instead of candy jars, Keller fills the office with fresh flowers, and urges patients to pick a bloom to take home at the end of their appointment.

And less noticeable but no less important, she said, are the ‘pocket doors’ built into work areas, which slide closed, creating a sort of false wall and sound barrier when a staff member is using various pieces of equipment.

“Good design doesn’t always equal high cost,” she said, noting that while she did make some considerable investments in the space early on, including ‘floating ceilings’ in treatment rooms to create a more sterile environment without altering the mill building’s historic charm, and a floor plan that incorporates natural lines and curves at every turn, she has some further ideas for small changes with the patient in mind.

“We’re sensitive to where people’s gaze falls in a medical office such as this,” she said. “Color and rounded shapes are important to us; we use color-corrected lightbulbs to soften glare, and the treatment rooms are designed to keep all equipment behind the patient.”

Her next move won’t be so involved, but nonetheless she still smiles when she thinks about it.

“I want to have an artist come in and paint a long branch that people can follow with their eyes,” she said. “It will be small and subtle, with a caterpillar crawling across.

“And at the end of the branch,” she concluded, “the caterpillar will turn into an awesome butterfly.”