Firm： Blitz

Type： Commercial › Office

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2015

SIZE： 10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

BUDGET： Undisclosed

CPP, the publisher and administrator of the Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment, recently purchased a new home for the 50+ year-old company. The move presented CPP with the opportunity to rethink not only their physical workspace, but also their entire workflow process. Looking to optimize their space requirements and improve inter-departmental communications, the company moved out of a 35,000 SF collection of private offices and oversized cubicles dispersed across different building wings and into a 24,000 SF single-story building in Sunnyvale with an open environment and no private offices. With such a dramatic change in their workplace, the process of effective change management and proactive communication to the office at large was critical to the success of the project - something CPP executed perfectly. CPP embraced the move as a wonderful new chapter in the evolution of the company. This adventurous energy and sense of optimism was infections for the design team at Blitz, and the project’s light, bright, and (dare we say) happy vibe is a direct result of the client’s inspired vision.

As CPP’s mission is to inspire everyone to know, use, and share the power of personality, the new space provided a great opportunity to optimize not only for space utilization but also for the variety of personality types present in the workforce. Although popular debate might lead one to think that designing for different personality types boils down to private offices for introverts, and open office space for extroverts, the spectrum of personality is much wider than just two types, and the resulting design approaches should be much more nuanced. In reality, each personality type will want each type of workspace at some point during the day.

With this in mind, Blitz focused on offering a diverse palette of place, using creative solutions to improve space utilization at the same time. The work cafe, for example, houses multiple seating arrangements (a lounge, booths, benching, and cafe seating) and can provide for a variety of different work needs within a single area. Each department also has a dedicated team office tailored to its specific departmental needs, resulting in a collection of team offices which vary from conference rooms to more casual lounge spaces. The finished project ensures that even with a reduced footprint, everyone has access to his or her own preferred type of space. Open, airy ceilings that maximize natural light and other touches such as cheery pops of color, views to outdoors, and living walls further assist in creating a vibrant and dynamic space.