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As the year winds down, I’ve been thinking about the places where we spend so much of our time — the offices, corridors, labs, loading areas, and workrooms that quietly shape our day-to-day experience. Some of these spaces make the workday feel smooth. Others make it feel like an obstacle course. Most fall somewhere in between.
Whenever I’m brought in to look at a workspace, the front of the building is usually the star of the show. Wide entries, beautiful finishes, automatic doors, the whole list. But the moment I circle around to the loading dock, the tone changes. Suddenly we’re dealing with uneven surfaces, tight clearances, unclear routes and lighting that feels like it belongs in a parking lot from the 1980s.
Across industries, leaders are rethinking how to bring people back together. After years of hybrid work, the office has a new job to do: it needs to earn its place again.
Whenever I take on a Universal Design project, I often recommend a simple step: a stakeholder survey. It’s not glamorous, but it’s both engaging and revealing. Employees, facilities staff, and managers will tell you exactly where a space helps them, where it slows them down, and where it shuts them out. When clients choose to include this step, that feedback sets the stage for everything that follows.
If you’re serious about universal design, you need a way to see what’s really happening inside your facilities, starting with the people who use them every day.
You’ve got automatic doors, a decent elevator, and your lobby looks great. But can your staff get into the storage closet without crashing into a wall?
Let’s be blunt: ADA lawsuits aren’t cheap. They’re increasingly common, expensive headaches for businesses of all sizes. And they’re the perfect reminder that universal design shouldn’t be an afterthought.
Many businesses prioritize universal design in places like the U.S., but what about universal design around the world?
April is when facility teams get serious. HVACs get checked. Walls get repainted. Sidewalk cracks and potholes get filled. It’s all part of the seasonal reset that prepares buildings for summer operations. But while you're freshening things up, it’s worth...
Here are five of the biggest workplace design mistakes businesses make when designing their spaces—and how to fix them.