More than an Office: Curating the Best Workplace Experience
by Taylor Costello
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An office is more than just an assortment of desks and chairs.
When people aren’t resting at home, the office is where someone spends most of their time.
And the secret to creating an energized workplace where people want to spend hours working inside is a collection of ingredients that inspire people to return.
Below are vignettes from Phoenix Community Alliance‘s (PCA) diverse membership roster and how these Members keep their employees grounded and engaged daily.
Some Downtown workspaces that have a green wall by Vert Plantworks include The McKinley Club, The Churchill, Western Alliance Bank, and Eden Rooftop Bar (Photo: Evan Lambert/Vert Plantworks)
There doesn’t have to be a separation between closed office space and the outside. Vert Plantworks provides precisely that when a client requests to add greenery onto a wall.
They install and maintain “live walls,” commonly known as green walls. A cultivated collection of plants creates a visual contrast and flair to the interior. But more than simply being eye-catching, they create comfort within the office and have numerous health benefits, from acting as a natural air filter to providing a mental health boost for deskbound employees.
If you know where to look, you can find the green walls they care for sprinkled all around Downtown. The next time you’re inside Western Alliance Bank, The Churchill, The McKinley Club, Altura, or Fictiv (a business inside the Ten-O-One Building), these are their vibrant living canvases.
When SmithGroup designed the new LaneTerralever headquarters, they created the space around existing furniture. They added new touches, including flexible “clubhouse” workspaces named after historic neighborhoods and a hidden speakeasy. (Photos: Lane Terralever)
If you work inside a space for years, you tend to memorize its layout (and all its little secrets) after some time. When LaneTerralever relocated to a new building, the project architect, SmithGroup, redesigned their new home with a mixture of old and new and a few surprises.
In 2018, the marketing firm relocated from a historic building on McDowell Road to the top floor of the Missouri Falls building on 7th Street and Missouri Avenue. Their office is situated to capture prime mountain and lush neighborhood views from both inside and outside. SmithGroup designed the new headquarters around existing furniture from the former location and added new touches, including flexible “clubhouse” workspaces named after historic neighborhoods.
At the end of a work week, LaneTerralever employees congregate inside a hidden speakeasy to celebrate the completion of a project and other noteworthy victories, according to a Phoenix Business Journal article.
Gensler Phoenix designed the new Player 15 Group offices to include a full-service cafeteria, fitness center, arcade, lounge areas, and basketball and pickleball courts. (Photos: Taylor Costello)
When Player 15 Group, home of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, moved its more than 300+ person workforce from the Footprint Center to one of the Warehouse District’s large empty buildings, they spared no expense when Okland Construction adapted the 76,000-square-foot workspace.
In addition to a practice facility for the Phoenix Mercury (which was first used during the WNBA All-Star Weekend in July 2024), Gensler Phoenix designed the former Lincoln Union space to include a full-service cafeteria, fitness center, arcade, lounge areas, and basketball and pickleball courts when envisioning the most dynamic workplace possible.
Goodman’s Interior Structures reverse-engineered their office to integrate tangible social interactions and open spaces. (Photos: Goodmans)
The public office is now more than just a reception area, a bullpen of cubicles and a conference room space.
People want a space to facilitate connections with their coworkers, and good building design is integral to optimal social experiences. That’s exactly what Adam Goodman, the CEO of Goodman’s Interior Structures, did after his organization administered a company-wide survey, according to a KJZZ interview.
Working from that knowledge, they reverse-engineered the Goodman office, integrating tangible social interaction and open spaces into the design. A breakroom (complete with a kitchen island) was moved up front, and quiet phone booth areas and wellness rooms recharged employees for more interaction later.
When Clayco moved into its new Southwest Headquarters last fall, located at 44th Street and Camelback Road, the space was energized by the results of a Call to Artists campaign facilitated by Artlink Phoenix. (Photos: Clayco)
Public art starts a conversation about a place’s significance and history. By the same token, when a company commissions an artist to take over a wall inside an office, it speaks to the permanence of an organization’s presence and commitment to a location.
Although Clayco and its subsidiaries, including Lamar Johnson Collaborative, CRG, Concrete Strategies, and Ventana, focus on other disciplines, blending the arts and sciences for an outside-the-box design solution unites them.
When they moved into their new Southwest Headquarters last fall, located at 44th Street and Camelback Road, the space was energized by the results of a Call to Artists campaign facilitated by Artlink Phoenix. As guests explore the headquarters, they’ll find two murals by Adrian Ramirez and Christopher Jagmin as focal points of interest outside different meeting spaces.
At the start of the year, the Flinn Foundation, a philanthropic foundation supporting bioscience and civic interests through grants, opened its doors to eligible nonprofits by offering a refreshed and enhanced conference space for eligible nonprofits. (Photos: Amy Schaumberg/A. Marie Studios)
An office shouldn’t be a closed environment. Investing in an inviting conference room motivates the community to learn more about their neighbors and utilize it as a resource.
A porous office invites a revolving door of complementary organizations into their conference room space. Not only does a bookable conference room encourage connectivity between two different organizations whose paths may not traditionally cross, but it similarly keeps that relationship once it’s been made.
At the start of the year, the Flinn Foundation, a philanthropic foundation supporting bioscience and civic interests through grants, opened its doors to eligible nonprofits by offering a refreshed and enhanced conference center space for free.
Every workplace is different and requires a bespoke approach.
A single office may have one or multiple of these elements to entice employees and guests inside.
If we look to our own Downtown Phoenix, Inc. office at CityScape as an example, a former elevator shaft (dubbed ‘The Parlor’) was converted to an informal meeting space, with a mural by artist Lauren Lee and several other front-facing art activations.
Moreover, the memorable details in the best offices deepen an employee’s appreciation of them over time.