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Reception area and adjacent conference room.

Kettler decided to use the opportunity to relocate its
Project: Kettler,
employees into redesigned office space in a nearby
McLean, VA
Tysons building.
Architects: FOX Architects In the previous location, the two Kettler companies had
MEP Engineers: DDG Virginia Engineering, PC a total of 150 employees occupying 43,000 square feet
Glass Consultants: Design Glazing Concepts spread across five floors. In the new building, there are still
Furniture Consultants: Washington Workplace 150 employees, but now they occupy only 35,000 square
Project Managers: The Magellan Group
Contractor: Lansdowne Construction feet on one and a half floors. “The reduction of square
footage was quite intentional,” said Cindy Fisher, Kettler’s
chief administrative officer. “We wanted to use our square
Contemporary office design is as much about community footage more efficiently and we wanted more open space
as it is about the work. Increasingly, architects are and collaborative environment for all our employees.”
recognizing—in ways both subtle and striking—that The move from the previous building not only
space determines human behavior, and perhaps nowhere resulted in a reduction of square footage, but the budget
more so than in the workplace. Command-and-control, top- for high-end luxury finishes was smaller, too. “Kettler’s
down management styles have given way to collaborative former space was heavy, like an old-school law firm,”
decision making; closed-in, private offices are being recalled Michelle Reyman, AIA, LEEP AP, technical
scrapped to make room for teamwork and technology; and director at FOX Architects and project manager on the
the demand for flexible spaces has given rise to huddle Kettler job. “The space didn’t reflect the Kettler brand and
rooms, collision areas, phone booths, homey lounges, and management really wanted something more progressive
quiet corners. that encouraged cross-collaboration.”
In addition to its flexible and collaborative benefits, Reyman described an iterative process as the architects
an open office layout is frequently the most space-efficient worked with Kettler managers and employees, helping
and cost-effective approach to workplace design. Certainly them find their comfort level with a design that features far
that is the experience of Kettler, a leading real estate fewer private offices and much more communal space. “We
development and property management company did it department by department,” recalled Reyman. “Some
headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. In recently merging like Marketing and IT embraced the open office concept
its previously distinct property management activities quickly; others—the more ‘heads-down’ offices like Legal—
and development business into one cohesive enterprise, really felt they needed to retain some private workspaces.”

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