UP FRONT
Defined Design Zimmerman Office by Amanda Koellner
Communication \kə-ˌmyü-nə-ˈkā-shən\ (noun) The act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc. to someone else. The Zimmerman office was expressly designed to foster communication, with the open interconnecting stair linking the reception area and executive space on the fourth floor with the third’s workstations and lounge. The stair “promotes serendipitous encounters and shared experiences,” serving as the office’s own “town square.”
20
july–august 2015
gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: JASPER SANIDAD
In this issue’s big feature story on workplace design, our guest editor—Kay Sargent, director of workplace design at Lend Lease—emphasizes that sustainability in our offices will soon be just as much about how people feel at work, rather than whether or not the building they work in was constructed with sustainably sourced materials. The Zimmerman advertising office in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, designed by Gensler and made possibly by Omnicom (who purchased the agency three renovated floors in a five-story building), proves to be a prime, current day example of this prediction (though all products pictured were considered from a sustainability angle). Here, we choose three words to explore just how this workplace operates as its very own “town square” and keeps its employees happy. gb&d