Health and Well-being
Seeking to eliminate toxic materials, ensuring good air quality, and prioritizing access to daylight are sound design strategies, and the obvious values and benefits of "greener" buildings highlighted by rating systems like LEED have led many jurisdictions to adopt local sustainability ordinances as part of their permit process. More recently, the WELL Building Standard™ has gone a step further to focus specifically on human health and wellness, both physical and mental.  Factors like ergonomics, acoustics, fitness, and nutrition, even the effects of color temperature in lighting, have impacts on wellness and are prioritized in the design of the built environment. Today's WELL accredited designers are using evidence-based medical research to address these factors and support human wellness in the workplace.            
The positive effects of designing with wellness as a priority are obvious from an HR standpoint, which impacts an organization's bottom line.  Even for existing spaces, offering healthier food and drink options, exercise programs, quiet space, and addressing ergonomics with sit-stand desks are good first steps.

An Interview with Andrew Volckens, Senior Associate and Karie Vagedes, Associate of Huntsman Architectural Group, Chicago
 
In September, 2016, Huntsman AG launched the firm’s third office in downtown Chicago, with the goals of better supporting its national clients and building a regional presence in the Midwest. One significant advantage in the expansion effort was that Chicago team leaders - Senior Associate, Andrew Volckens and Associate, Karie Vagedes - both have deep roots in the Windy City.  Within one short year, they have successfully elevated the firm's presence in the Chicago business community, landed several exciting project commissions, and are expanding their team. Andrew and Karie share their thoughts on the thrills and challenges of starting a new office and building a bright future for Huntsman Chicago.
 
Q:  Andrew and Karie, it's been one year since you started the Chicago office. How has the journey been so far?
It has been a wild ride but more than anything, it has been fun. The two of us had not worked together before but it didn’t take long for us to realize that we would get along just fine.  If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have made it a year.  We learned early on that open communication and trust was going to be required to make it work. We also learned that making friendly jabs at each other to keep the mood light and the laughs a plenty is similarly important.
 
Q: Anything that has surprised you in the office start-up?
Just how welcoming and friendly the community has been to us. Everyone we have reached out to have been willing to meet with us and link us up with a few other contacts they consider a good fit. We’ve had countless breakfast meetings, coffees, smoothie get-togethers, lunches, happy hours, and dinners in the last year to build up our network. We truly value the friendships we have made and we are forever grateful to our first clients taking a chance on us. We are hopeful that our relationships with them continue to grow as we expand here.
 
Q:  Both of you originally started in our San Francisco office. What is the most important thing you’ve brought to Chicago from that experience?
We have tried to bring the same culture and work ethic we both cherished from the San Francisco office to Chicago. We’re also leveraging our workplace expertise. In San Francisco, we were fortunate to work for clients such as Google, YouTube, and Quantcast and developing cutting-edge standards for technology-focused office spaces. Bringing this knowledge to Chicago has been very helpful when it comes to talking about workplace trends and the amenities that building owners and companies are building to attract and retain tenants and employees.
 
Q: What makes the Chicago market unique in terms of practicing Architecture and Design?
Chicago is rooted in such a rich architectural history that people know the importance of good design. It’s also a forward-thinking market, where clients realize how new ideas about how people work can be a game changer for an organization’s success strategy.
 
Q:  Because of your tenacious business development skills the office already has several larger projects underway and your plates are full! How has the addition of the office's first hire, designer, Macaria Isip, helped support each of your efforts in growing the office?
Macaria is extremely self-motivated and she has the skillset to take a job from conceptual design through construction. She has been an incredible addition to the team. We also just welcomed a former Huntsman intern, Madison George to the Chicago crew. Building a team has taken some of the work load and pressure off the two of us and allowed us to spend more time working directly with our clients.  

Q: Why did you choose to join Huntsman? 

AW: One reason had to do with the positive buzz on the street. I’d heard about Huntsman through colleagues in New York, who always spoke highly of the firm particularly about the high caliber of the people at the office. After meeting with Huntsman Principals - Sandra Tripp, Sascha Wagner, and Linda Parker, I found that everything I’d heard was true and that I could see myself working side by side with them.  I was really drawn to Huntsman’s philosophy as it relates to clients and employees – one that is motivating, entrepreneurial and committed to success through collaboration. I also feel that working within a mid-sized firm allows me to experience and contribute to its growth.


Q: How has being an east coast native and living in NY inspired your design/work? 

AW: NYC’s reputation for ‘I need it yesterday’ paired with the intense competition within the design field has always kept me en pointe, especially when it comes to interacting with clients, consultants, vendors, and contractors.  Working within a professional service industry – albeit a highly creative one – means having to learn about and anticipating our clients’ needs. Expectations are high and it has shaped my work ethic accordingly. 

Q: What is your definition of successful design? 

AW: To me, successful design is revealed in two parts: first, when the client walks into the newly-completed space and says, “YES, this is what we were envisioning” and second, a few months down the road and they say that the space works for them and the employees are thrilled to be in the space.

For example, I had an international client who had a presence in New York and a small presence in Long Island.  Their goal was to consolidate in NYC, but it became challenging to gain complete buy-in by the Long Island staff.  To solve this, the client signed a lease at 2 Penn Plaza, directlyover Penn Station, where staff had immediate access to the office, making it an easy commute for everyone. The overall office design and build-out had an outdoorsy, park theme suggestive of The Highline.  We planned an amenity space to include a large ‘market’ that emulated a town hall and had oversized TVs and bleacher seating for social gatherings and all-hands meetings. Raw materials like brick or industrial windows were introduced, along with plantings in the walls; like a city within their space.  The space was so well-received that the workspace evolved to hot desking and hot lockers to accommodate the number of employees that opted to work in New York.

Q: What is the most valuable lesson you've learned during your career?

AW: Open communications that support managing expectations, whether it’s the client or your internal team.  I like to think of good project management as balancing goals within the “longview” with any immediate milestones that hold priority today. That, and understanding and being receptive to the strengths of a given team. We’re all working together. It’s important to show up and dig in side by side.  

Q: Any advice you can offer the junior and mid-level staff as they develop their design careers? 

AW: Ownership and communication are key.  Own what you do; it’s your name on it, whatever the project or task is.  Always communicate - ask questions, even if you think you’re bothering someone, and keeping your team informed. 

Contact Andrew: 
awitlin@huntsmanag.com

by Sandra Tripp, IIDA LEED AP and Bill Puetz, CID LEED AP

​In 1986, three Harvard undergraduates—John Chuang, Steve Kapner, and Mia Wenjen—started a desktop publishing business based out of John and Steve’s dorm room. That business grew into Aquent, a marketing, creative, and digital staffing agency with offices across the globe.

Eventually, all that growth meant Aquent’s headquarters in Boston were getting tight. We’d been planning and designing a number of regional offices in North America for the company, so they turned to us. They were spread out on four floors, which was hardly ideal. But they were reluctant to relocate to a new building, because their culture was so bound up in their existing space. We looked into options for refreshing the space. Eventually they decided not to renew their lease, forcing the issue.

So Aquent leased a single 30,000-square-foot floor in 501 Boylston Street, an Art Deco building originally constructed in 1940 and known for generations as the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company building. We held a visioning session with Aquent to identify goals to guide the relocation. We came up with six:
 

1. The new headquarters should give Aquent all the tools they needed to work with similar-minded people and have fun.
2. The current space was homogenous. The new headquarters should be tailored to individual work zones, providing lots of choice.
3. The new headquarters should reinforce Aquent’s values of sharing space and resources.
4. It should be modern, liberated from “stuff.”
5. The materials should blend the modern and the natural.
6. The space should be alive and energizing and make people happy every day.

​Our charge was to preserve the culture that existed in the old space, in terms of the way the space felt, while transforming the way they worked by enhancing collaboration and connection.
 
The headquarters we designed reflects the egalitarianism of the company by switching to 100 percent hoteling—there are no assigned desks here, not even for the executives. We did provide one-to-one desking—120 workstations for 120 people—with the idea that the hoteling concept would allow the space to comfortably accommodate a growing workforce.
 
Much of the building’s historic interior had been stripped in previous remodels. So we had to give the space a sense of character that would reflect the culture—not just for the people working here, but for local clients and for visiting workers from Aquent’s offices around the world. 

​To organize the large floor plate, we created a variety of destinations for working, drawing on popular building forms, each with their own feel and personality: terrace, pergola, back porch, library, general store, hut, and start-up garage.

To welcome visitors from the start, the reception desk flows into the café, creating a big public space. The café has a 20-foot-long table—Aquent has one of these in each office. They call it the harvest table. At 900 square feet, the café is big, and can be zoned into multiple areas. It’s meant to be a sort of coffee shop, where people can work at the harvest table, at movable café tables, or in four-person booths. A large meeting room can be closed off with large wooden doors as needed.
 
We detailed the space using natural materials such as timber beams, lattice panels, and oversized wood sliding doors. For example, we used real exterior grade wooden shingles to clad the huts, which contain meeting rooms that can be reserved. Phone booths are drop-in spaces for one to two people. Whiteboards are everywhere—including tabletops. Because the headquarters is 100 percent open plan, acoustic clouds all over the work areas absorb sound, and white noise provides additional sound masking. 

​For those times when people really need to concentrate, they can head to the library. Although it’s also open plan, cell phone use isn’t allowed, and all talking is to be kept to a minimum. It’s sort of like the “quiet car” on Amtrak. At the back of the library, movable bleacher seating can be reconfigured for all-hands meetings. In a tongue-in-cheek touch, we put film on the glass windows that looks like shelves of books.
 
The pergola meeting areas are accessed through a corridor with a wood slat ceiling designed to resemble a trellis. The glass walls of each room are covered with a film that looks like switchgrass.
 
The back porch is a series of semiprivate rooms where people can get away from their desk and either have an impromptu meeting or just work at their laptop in a sunny space. 

​The garage came about because they wanted a place that felt completely different from all the other spaces, but that would still function as everyday workspace. The sliding garage doors enable it to be separated from the rest of the office as needed. The standing height desks inside have butcher block tops. Just like in a real garage, people can hang things on pegboards on the walls.
 
When we went on our initial walkthrough of the space, we were told there was a room we couldn’t go into, and that it wasn’t part of the leasable space. Of course, we went into it anyway. Turned out it had a stairway that the landlords had walled off in the middle for building code reasons. It was a stairway to nowhere.
 
We asked the landlords if we could have it, if we made it code compliant, because we’d like to use it for a little hidden room, and they said yes. So we added a few sprinklers and painted the risers multiple colors. At the top of the steps, we placed off-the-shelf lockers for people to keep their belongings—especially important for a place where people don’t have assigned desks.
 
Our clients tell us the space has completely changed how they interact, and they love it: people are talking to each other, and it’s served as a great recruiting tool. It was an unusual job for us—keeping the essence of the culture, while completely changing the way everyone worked.

​Before Photos Below

Q: What aspect of interior design do you enjoy the most and why?

EN: I have always enjoyed the power behind solving problems. Growing up, I loved puzzles, watching how each piece had a certain place and purpose, all working together to create a bigger picture. This is why I appreciate the technical side of interior design and see it as a spring board towards a successful project. Similarly, programming shares this sense of challenge, incorporating the client’s needs and providing the best solution possible. Programming was also my favorite subject in school. 

Q: Growing up, your grandfather was an architect. What did you learn from him that you are able to utilize in your work today?

EN: My grandfather exposed me to architecture at a young age. I grew up looking at his drawings, going to his office and watching how projects progressed, from start to finish. I remember one project in particular that has stuck with me. He was designing a local church. I recall looking at all the drawings and being so enthralled with the vast scale of the building. Every time I visited him I would love to see the new sketches and how the design of the church changed. When the project was completed, he took me to the site, and I was able to see all of the sketches come to life. It was my first exposure to the design process. Through this, he taught me appreciation for architectural design and the importance of patience and precision. 

Q: What similarities do you see between designing for a major fitness brand and designing for corporate interiors?  How are you able to apply this experience to workplace interiors?

EN: I see similarities in understanding the market and the client. While at Equinox, I was working in teams that designed health clubs that responded to factors such as location, client, market and current trends. We worked to craft a tailored fit for each club. This is comparable to the work I have done with Huntsman thus far. We cater towards the client’s needs, where they are located or moving to, and provide an understanding of the market. This comes back to being a part of a great company that works hard to produce quality projects for their clients.

Q: Based on your experience at Equinox, what are some ways the office environment can benefit from incorporating more fitness and well-being initiatives that are not yet present?

EN: In my opinion, treadmill workstations reflect the evolution/merge of a new lifestyle and professional environment, and it’s becoming more common in the workplace. It’s not limited to tech companies anymore. Healthy initiatives are becoming a part of the overall office environment. By incorporating more wellbeing initiatives, companies promote a healthier work environment and in turn healthier/happier employees. Studies have even shown that morale and employee performance increases as the office offers a better balance between work and personal life.

Q: As they join the workforce, millennials are bringing new trends, technologies and lifestyles to the workplace. How do you think the office will evolve to accommodate this new generation?  

EN:  The workplace is deviating from the idea of working at a permanent desk from 9-5. As millennials are joining the workforce, expectations about the workplace are changing. So are perceptions about office culture and environment. Flexibility is a huge factor, the need to have flexible hours and areas to work. The office is feeling the impact of these desires and making changes to accommodate them. Office layouts are integrating new strategies for flexibility and variety to enhance creativity and more importantly the productivity of their new workforce. This in turn is driving the innovation of office design. 

Q:  What do you want to learn or accomplish here at Huntsman?

EN:  Having only recently begun my career within corporate planning and design, I would like to learn about every aspect and develop my skills as a designer. I am at that stage where I want to soak in as much information as possible, and I look forward to opportunities that will allow me to weave in my unique perspective. I find it fascinating to learn about the composition of a product and the testing it has to go through. I want to better understand the relationship between products and their impact on the designed environment. 


Contact Nicole: 
negan@huntsmanag.com
212.693.2700