Meet 2024 Next Work Environment Competition winner of the hybrid work environments private office: Gensler‘s Neiman Marcus Group Dallas hub.
Paul Manno
Nichole Babiak
Kelly Moore
Amanda Kendall
Loren Brouillette
Hoang Khoi
The Gensler team, Paul Manno, Nichole Babiak, Kelly Moore, Amanda Kendall, Loren Brouillette and Khoi Hoang, created a work environment that fosters a culture of belonging. The workplace reflects a new mindset and shifts the role of the office to a magnet, not a mandate.
Check out the submission below:
The Neiman Marcus Group Dallas Hub is a magnet, not a mandate.
Cultivating a culture of creativity, inspiration, and growth, Neiman Marcus Group saw the pandemic as a catalyst to rethink the way they work. Realizing their traditional corporate office had become passe’, the luxury retailer redefined their workplace into a “Hub” destination connecting associates to their network of corporate hubs, distribution centers, and retail stores.
I appreciated how on brand the Neiman Marcus space was and how much it was like the stores. They’re reflective of that minimalist approach and how different a Neiman’s space is from lots of other department stores.
— The 2024 Next Work Environment Competition Jury
Partnering with the architecture firm’s strategy team, NMG assessed the challenges and opportunities around creating an environment where associates are given the autonomy to work how, when, and where they choose, optimizing their work and lifestyles while prioritizing customer service. Collaborating with IDEO, they redefined the in-person and remote collaboration experience.
The Hub’s state-of-the-art integrated technology with telecom, video, and virtual whiteboards provides visual equity for hybrid meetings. When combined with responsive space solutions, the Hub flips the workplace paradigm to 70% collaboration-oriented spaces and 30% individual workspace. Whether in-person or virtual, teams feel a “front-row experience” in the multipurpose room’s theater-style seating.
Recognizing each associate has their own individual work style, the architecture firm’s strategy and design teams developed multiple work point archetypes informing the design of workspaces, collaboration rooms, and associate lounges. Fostering authentic connections to the NMG brand, each associate lounge reflects design inspiration, color, materials, and accessory palettes of the flagship geographic locations.
Neiman Marcus Group Hub is the metamorphosis of the workplace. Grounded on research and strategies that are reflect the company’s goals. The Hub’s clean lines, timeless materials, and hospitality-inspired details is a testament to the design team’s talent of delivering a high-end feeling project within a restrained budget while exuding the NMG mantra of “EXPECT THE EXTRAORDINARY.”
We connected with the Gensler team to see how the Dallas hub has evolved since entering the competition:
The Neiman Marcus Group Hub project had one unifying goal; to be “a magnet not a mandate.” Realizing their traditional corporate office had become passe’, the luxury retailer looked to redefine their workplace into a “Hub” destination, connecting associates to their network of corporate hubs, distribution centers, and retail stores. This new approach offered associates the autonomy to work how, when, and where they choose, optimizing their work and lifestyles while prioritizing customer service.
Since its inception, this “magnet” has drawn associates from across the globe, as teams and individuals found a workspace that is responsive, agile and customizable to their needs. Beyond that, the social lounges and gathering spaces became venues that fostered connections beyond departmental and geographical boundaries.
In the end the Hub not only revolutionized workplace for NMG; it has become the symbol and physical embodiment of their culture and philosophy.
I really liked that Neiman Marcus, as an organization that was still renting office space, was leaning into this idea of what hybrid could mean in their own dedicated space.
— The 2024 Next Work Environment Competition Jury
We also asked: How do you think hybrid models will continue to evolve in the next 18 months?
Workplace performance will no longer be defined only by building efficiency or space effectiveness; as hybrid work is different for all organizations.
The conversations will continue to evolve towards a new precedent for measuring workplace performance – by the emotional response to space and the experience that is uniquely tailored to each client. There will also be a continued shift from real estate occupancy to people-centric performance to understand the impact of space on how employees work and feel in the workplace.
In doing so, this unlocks the potential to design workplaces that can yield positive outcomes for individuals, teams, and organizations.
Special thanks to our 2024 Innovative Brand Partners:
