It’s no secret we love our new office in Aksarben Village. While settling in over the past few months, we’ve enjoyed showing it off to clients, family and friends. Although from lease signing to move-in day the design took less than seven months, countless hours were devoted to creating a space that really embodied the Ervin & Smith culture and took into account employee feedback and workflow. “We didn’t focus on trends; we wanted to understand how our teams work, and at the same time challenge the way they thought about the space they work in and what it could be,” Ervin & Smith president Heidi Mausbach told the Midlands Business Journal. “Our budget was also a consideration throughout the process.”
The MBJ included insights from both Mausbach and our chief marketing officer Katie Kemerling in a recent article focused on office design. “The open-concept office design meets our needs for a collaborative, innovative, team environment,” Mausbach said. “There are challenges to the concept—lack of privacy and interest in the space, people looking over your shoulder, no place to make private calls, not having the right technology in private spaces—and we faced them head-on in the design process.” Our semiprivate areas and soundproof, private offices address these concerns.
“I feel like there’s more personal connection and conversation that’s happening naturally based on the space plan and design,” Kemerling said. “That strengthens our teamwork, the connectedness and the trust; there are bigger, better friendships and relationships emerging, and that’s going to do wonders for our personal happiness and for our client output.” When asked what lessons they would share with other business leaders designing or redesigning their offices, Kemerling advised, “It’s important to consider all aspects of the environment—hard spaces, soft spaces, privacy, noise level, etc. Don’t just design it for how it will look, also design for how it will work.”
Read more in the August 4 edition of the Midlands Business Journal.