In many ways, the space in which you work pre-determines how you work. It affects our happiness, our productivity, our creativity, and our ability to drive innovation and success. The layout of your work place is also a reflection of the culture your organization is trying to create. Adam Richardson at frog design says that we should consider more flexible work spaces to inspire “open thinking” and better support team dynamics, particularly since so many of us are working on collaborative projects.

Echoing Green is redesigning our office to help our team work more purposefully. For us, this means a different layout for smaller teams to work together. For example, our Communications Team is moving to one large area (we’re calling it The Cove) so we can quickly and easily chat and share information. We’re also opening more areas to accommodate the many Fellows who pass through New York and need a place to do some work.

Some of our best thinking and collaboration happens around healthy snacks, so an expanded kitchen and eating area is also in the works. We’re also mindful of the research on importance of quiet, uninterrupted time, so we have a couple of space to give our staff opportunities for privacy. For us, the office renovation has been about finding the balance between creating more functionality in a small Manhattan space for a growing team and regularly visiting Fellows, while maintaining a casual and fun culture.

So far, we’ve repainted our signature green and orange walls to a clean white. New windows came next. Our architects at Taylor and Miller have started the production of the new open boxes that will serve as “open dividers” between our individual spaces. These few renderings will give you a sense of what our office will look like in the next few months. We’re really excited about our new space—stay tuned as we share more details about the progress!