Burson Cohn and Wolfe, a multinational public relations and communications firm, wanted to consolidate their Washington, DC workforce from three-and-a-half floors to one floor.

Operating under parent company WPP, BCW needed a workspace that adheres to a nationwide, corporate-driven restructure while preserving the personality of the firm’s DC branch.

The design team worked with WPP agency leaders to develop a workplace strategy to enable each individually-branded firm to maintain its own identity while capitalizing on opportunities for inter-agency collaboration, shared amenities and space efficiencies.

The resulting design offers a unified color palette and illustrative style that showcases DC iconography in unexpected ways. By focusing the experience on the DC location, the brand-neutral design offers a cohesive sense of place for employees of different brands in an agile work environment.

Because the open office is organized into neighborhoods for each op-co, feature walls become placemaking elements for teams to gather around; “Let’s meet by Key Bridge” may be overheard. Brand logos are displayed on a flexible rail system alongside information about each featured landmark. This signage system allows teams to print panels themselves and hang multiple logos and other imagery.

Designed for flexibility, the space features shared support spaces that encourage employees to interact, such as the: multi-function room, game room, tech bar, employee resource center, career center, training rooms, and cubbies along the main hallway. This kit-of-parts design address WPP’s desire for its offices to be flexible to respond to changing business demands.