A flexible design approach for the Northwestern Mutual Headquarters in Milwaukee, WI.

The research-based design approach has been an integral part of our process since the firm’s founding, and we attribute it to the success of many of our most prominents projects. In confronting the realities of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear now more than ever,  that multifaceted and forward-facing thought plays a vital role in our ability to navigate uncertainty and to rapidly adapt to new conditions. As we assess new realities and the ways that good design responds to new challenges, the lessons learned from our work in downtown Milwaukee provide insights that can help us move forward.

When Northwestern Mutual’s CEO, John Schlifske, decided it was time to create a new headquarters building at the company’s Lake Michigan campus in downtown Milwaukee, he invited emerging young company leaders of all types drive the project. After all, they were the ones who will be working there the longest. Although founded way back in 1857—the mindset was that the new headquarters would support the transformation of Northwestern Mutual, a new economy company.

When we made our pitch to design the interiors, we proposed an approach similar to our high-tech clients in Silicon Valley: perform a deep dive into Northwestern’s culture and build on the DNA of the existing company with our learning in with an extensive research effort into the best practices relevant to their needs. They liked that approach, and we got the job.

We began by interviewing the Leaders of each of Northwestern’s 44 departments and their core team members—134 people in all—plus countless people at every level in the organization. In  one-on-one interviews we asked stakeholders to identify the opportunities and the challenges employees saw. We heard from both the new generation and the old guard. To understand the company from the bottom up, we immersed ourselves in the daily life, finding out what things were like for a typical employee, whether they sat at a desk or attended meetings, cooked in the kitchen or staffed the fitness center.

We discovered that the company’s employees were remarkably aligned with Mr. Schlifske’s vision that the engagement of all employees invested in the company’s enterprise represented Northwestern’s future, and is crucial for success. Everyone recognized that the company needed to break down the silos between departments, introduce and experiment with new work processes to have a nimble culture embracing innovation.

Next, we reviewed the research literature of management scientists about how to build employee engagement. From this research, we discovered eight critical drivers. After some analysis, we determined that the architecture of the work environment could support five of those drivers, helping employees become better friends with each other, increase their pride in their company, foster better relationships with their supervisors, and recognize an alignment with and a stake in the future vision for the company.

We introduced these concepts during workshops with the company about the future of the workplace and used these concepts to guide our decisions about what amenity functions would be included, the placement of functions within the Headquarters complex, and the way we would build flexibility into the workspaces.

Informed by our discussions about employee engagement lead Northwestern Mutual to think about their core values. In support of our vision for a new and revitalized headquarters, we developed a series of charts that mapped those values to components of the future office space to demonstrate the alignment of functions with values. In other words, we were helping to lead a cultural change in the company, but it was based on the aspirations and values of the company

Although our ultimate role was officially interior architecture firm of record, we were able to build on our research to influence the building’s architecture as well. The design architect for the new building’s core and shell was Pickard Chilton with Kendall Heaton Associates, Inc. as architect of record.   We suggested the office tower have an offset core instead of a traditional central core, so that the building could have large open daylit office spaces facing the breathtaking views of Lake Michigan.  By moving the core to one side, we could put the open office areas to the south and west and the conferencing center to the north and west, with the conference pre-function area completely separated from the open workstations.  

Ideas come from everywhere.  One of Northwestern Mutual’s leadership team observed that employees typically gather around the doors to conference rooms before and after meetings often completing important one on one discussions, but also distracting nearby employees trying to complete focused work tasks.  In our new configuration, we created places for these conversations to occur that are separated from workstations.  Employees could complete important communications without worry of distracting others.

The other interesting thing about Northwestern’s office space needs was that the only constant was change. Groups are constantly dividing and reconstituting for new projects. So we created a highly flexible office space module, which each department can set up for benching or traditional workstations or other configurations as needed. There are a range of alternative work options beyond the desk: informal meeting spaces for one to three employees, focused workspaces for individuals, and a hub on each office floor, near the elevators, that provides a common work table, banquet seating, and food options. Conference rooms are modular as well, so they can easily change from a large conference room to two medium-sized rooms or a medium conference room with several small focused-work rooms.

One of the reasons that we do all these interviews and immersions is that we always want the solutions that we come up with to emerge from the existing company culture. Northwestern Mutual has always been a company with a special culture. This project has been a vehicle to adapt that culture by bringing in some of the innovation that's occurring on the West Coast in high-tech and other new-economy firms. It was a natural development.

Our research-based design process led to insights realized in a workplace, which signal the company’s commitment to its young collaborative innovators. The current pandemic introduces new parameters for both the immediate and long-term future.  Design thinking needs to anticipate new realities that can emerge at any moment and the workplaces of the future will need to flex to meet each new challenge. 

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