Project profile

Morning Consult

How a thriving data intelligence firm found a new home to match its exponential growth

Oct 8, 2024

5 minutes

Three people using a large, open-window conference room furnished with Herman Miller Eames Aluminium Group Chairs while an individual walks by a bank of grey sofas and white side tables

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Seven years after Morning Consult opened its doors, the DC-based polling, intelligence and insights start-up had already outgrown its first office space. The company set out to plant new roots with a 4,645-square-metre headquarters in the former home of iconic department store Woodward and Lothrop, better known as "Woodies", in the heart of the district's historic Penn Quarter. The move gave Morning Consult an opportunity to design a space that would support new ways of working and adapt as the company continued to evolve.

Company culture as design driver

The pandemic gave Morning Consult time to deliberate about how its DC headquarters should function.

"If you are not designing for the true purpose of a space today, it will fail immediately," says Gensler Design Director Jessica Maples, architect on the project. "Morning Consult was very intentional about having everything be well-dressed, well-prepared and finely tuned for the sake of people first."

The firm's facilities and leadership teams examined the pillars of their company culture, how they could improve employee experience and the ways they could take advantage of their new space's floorplate to accommodate diverse work styles.

Project goals included:

  • Warm, engaging and sophisticated design

  • Multifunctional spaces that could adapt and flex over time

  • Diverse space types to accommodate different work styles

  • Good sight lines with equal access to outdoor views

  • Timeless high-quality furniture that lasts, with easy maintenance

Four individuals using a brightly lit communal kitchen space with green plants, grey and black kitchen hardware and Geiger Leeway Stools
Garrett Rowland Photography

The right balance

Morning Consult Looked to foster a creative environment, ripe for collaboration, while also elevating the experience for their employees.

The welcome area is a prime example. It includes reception, a lounge and a café – operating as a mixed-use space suitable for a coffee break, lunch, all-staff events, or after-hour work events.

Shared spaces peppered throughout the office offer opportunities for employees to work together and casually connect. Meanwhile, private offices double as huddle rooms, providing privacy and focus for when collaborative tasks arise. Unassigned seating and ample flexibility let people work where and how they want, whether they’re coming in two days a week or five.

"We envisioned what people would look like moving and working in this office," says Jeighdeane King, Morning Consult's Head of Spaces and Facilities. "To adapt to a diversity of work styles, there are a lot of alternative ways for people to be in this space."

The design team also took cues from the retailer's approach of "serving people and graciously welcoming them into the design." The tiles, light fixtures, colours and restored terracotta façade all give nods to the historic nature of the building.

A large conference room with grey carpet and walls furnished with a large conference table, mounted TV screen and brown Herman Miller Eames Aluminium Group Chairs

Whether we were in a finish meeting or design meeting, we were able to visualise immediately what was possible and to make adjustments as needed.

Tina Li, Design Manager – Bialek

Collaborative design in real time

When MillerKnoll came aboard as a furniture partner, the design process took a collaborative shape. "I really do think that everybody on this team understood the assignment, including those of us who didn't exactly know what that was," King says. "It evolved through those first initial weeks of schematic design and into design development."

Tina Li, design manager at MillerKnoll dealer Bialek, used space planning tools to show options
for furniture, materials, colours and finishes – allowing her to design in the moment alongside 
King and Maples.

“Whether we were in a finish meeting or design meeting, we were able to visualise immediately what was possible and also to layout and make adjustments as needed,” Li says.

The products the team specified included Cosm Chairs, Eames Aluminium Group Chairs and height-adjustable Nevi Link Tables from Herman Miller, Leeway Stools from Geiger and a variety of seating from Knoll, including the Saarinen Conference Chair – as well as products from other brands from the MillerKnoll collective.

"A workplace should exceed the expectations of the staff and be a future-forward response to the new hybrid workplace," Maple says. The result speaks for itself, as King adds: "It's nice to hear 
from employees that the world we imagined came to life the way we expected."

An office space with banks of workstations and conference rooms furnished with Herman Miller Cosm Chairs, Knoll Saarinen Conference Chairs and NaughtOne Polly Chairs
Garrett Rowland Photography

3-point recap

  • With its new headquarters, data intelligence firm Morning Consult set out to embrace new ways of working with a space that can adapt as the company continues to evolve.

  • The office features flexible, collaborative spaces and an elevated employee experience designed to support the company's exponential growth.

  • Gensler's partnership with MillerKnoll created a collaborative design process. Furniture from across our collective, as well as colours, materials and finishes, were selected and visualised in real time.

Two people conversing at a large communal kitchen bar furnished with Geiger Leeway Stools at Morning Consult

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