When CPS Energy, San Antonio’s well-respected energy company, was ready to redesign its headquarters, the company’s vice president of people and culture, Lisa D. Lewis, made an unexpected but fundamental contribution. The existing structure had been built when the San Antonio river was more or less a canal, not the prized urban amenity it is today. So the HVAC mechanics were all on the river-facing side of the building. “I remember giving our facilities leader a heart attack when I said, ‘Well we can’t have all that there! We need access to the outside!’,” Lewis said. “But I was able to convince them.” Now CPS’s office, designed by Corgan, takes full advantage of its connection to the river.

The role that the “people people”—i.e., the people in an organization in charge of human resources, talent, and culture—can play alongside designers in creating exceptional workplaces was the topic of discussion at a Metropolis Think Tank discussion last year hosted at Corgan’s Dallas offices.

In fact, the panel argued, when HR leaders aren’t involved to effect policy change in workplace redesign projects, it can have disastrous effects. Lindsay Wilson, president of Corgan, rattled off horror stories—people accustomed to large computer screens being forced to work on “itty bitty” laptops just because the organization wanted them to be mobile, or fitness centers that just can’t deal with the demand during lunchtimes or immediately after hours because the workers don’t have flexible schedules. “Sometimes it’s just silly,” she said. “If an organization creates a really casual work environment as the design direction, and they don’t change their dress code, you have people in ties sitting in tiny chairs looking very uncomfortable. It just doesn’t work.”