The Bridgespan Group

The Bridgespan Group was at a crossroads in their corporate office, and had the opportunity to move to a new location on a single floorplate. With an existing office comprised of cubicles and private offices, they embraced this change and used it to really design and shape a new workplace that reflects the way they work and their specific culture. Our team’s challenge was to create an environment that would allow Bridgespan — a nonprofit organization that provides management consulting to nonprofits and philanthropists — to, in their words, “remain relevant” as a leader among their peers. With a brand based around inclusion, mentorship, and limitless cross-collaboration among groups, it was a welcome challenge.

How did we start? By holding a three-day VisionLab and partnering with a highly-specialized international business consultant to help Bridgespan understand how a new space could honestly embody their business and cultural goals. Our cultural travel through this VisionLab informed the overall spatial design, and lessons gleaned from working with the business consultant made everyone a little wiser. At the start of the VisionLab, the majority of staff thought they wanted to keep their old model of individual dedicated workspaces, however the exercise revealed that radical change was preferred for this dramatic leap into Bridgespan’s future.

In the new place, there are no assigned seats. Everyone has a locker to store their personal belongings and they choose where they want to sit each day based on what they need to do. Critical to the success of the project, the work environment is broken up into three zones which are Very Quiet, Intermediate, and Active. The staff uses the entire space throughout the day, which harnesses the energy and idea-sharing that makes Bridgespan such a unique organization.

Want to work with us? Get in touch.