With its trove of employee-generated reviews of employers and workplaces, Glassdoor takes the design of its own office spaces very seriously. For the company's Chicago office, Valerio Dewalt Train Associates balanced the company's evolving corporate identity - its 'outward voice' - with the needs of the local team - its 'inward voice.'
The entry zone is defined by curvilinear activity nodes, reflecting Glassdoor's newly redefined brand-the 'outward voice' - with taut forms, curved glass, and clean lines. As visitors go deeper, the nodes become more colorful, with glass openings revealing Chicago-oriented graphics. The nodes - five in all, each one named after a different Chicago neighborhood and accommodating a range of meeting spaces and other uses - divide the floor into neighborhoods of workstations and employee amenity zones.
Everywhere, the employees have ample room to take ownership of their own workstations and communal locations. Shared spaces across the office provide chalkboard walls, writable calendars, empty planters and pin-up space that inspire interaction. All surrounded on every side by floor to ceiling glass with striking views of the Loop and the entire city.
Photography: Tom Harris