Whether taking an automobile for a spin or attending workshops at the Apple Store, test drives have helped the modern consumer understand innovation. Gensler, too, has applied trial runs to its workplace business. When moving its own staff into a new office, the global design firm treats that space “as a laboratory that demonstrates our principles and our research,” says Andy Cohen, co-CEO of the company with Diane Hoskins.
Gensler has put itself on the frontline of workplace evolution since it began officially researching the subject 15 years ago. After Cohen and Hoskins approve a lease, the local workplace-design team will translate guiding principles and other proprietary knowledge—most notably, metrics from a firm-generated survey tool called the Workplace Performance Index—to that site. Gensler’s most recent offices represent a common vision of open, daylight-infused spaces where square footage once allotted to individual workspaces is now distributed among focused tasks, collaboration, and other activities. They also center on zones that can accommodate all-hands events.