Advisory Board Company Headquarters
Building culture and a mission, especially in a company with a dispersed workforce, can be a challenge at an individual, team and organizational level. Yet the headquarters for the Advisory Board Company, a research organization that serves member clients in the healthcare and education industries—and is a subsidiary of Optum, which is part of UnitedHealth Group—creates a new type of workplace that better connects employees to the organization’s mission and to each other through a welcoming and engaging environment.
With a workforce of frequent travelers and geographically dispersed employees, many of whom spend only a short time in the main office, the Advisory Board sought NBBJ’s workplace consulting expertise to create a headquarters that would build community while fostering the innovative, important research the company is known for. Before building the headquarters, the workplace consulting team gathered insights to help inform the design—through group workshops, employee observations, staff surveys and executive interviews—to reveal the company’s unique culture, goals and workplace challenges.
Features
To further the Advisory Board’s mission to help their clients “act with confidence, avoid missteps, and work smarter and faster,” we developed three different organizational models that explored various configurations of individual and team-based work layouts, from an “innovative hive” to a college campus inspired environment. The team ultimately pursued the composite “ABC Center,” a workplace with free-address work areas grouped into different Advisory Board departments and arranged around diverse amenities.
Project Details
Client Name
Advisory Board Company
Square Footage
532,000 SF
Program
Interiors, amenities, library and reading zone, innovation lab, touchdown space, traveler business center
Services
Workplace consulting: badge analysis, department interviews, observations, space audits, staff workshops, surveys, visioning and leadership conversations
Phase
Completed
Client Name
Advisory Board Company
Square Footage
532,000 SF
Program
Interiors, amenities, library and reading zone, innovation lab, touchdown space, traveler business center
Services
Workplace consulting: badge analysis, department interviews, observations, space audits, staff workshops, surveys, visioning and leadership conversations
Phase
Completed
Washington Business Journal, "A Peek Inside Advisory Board's Planned New Home"
Washington Business Journal, "A Peek Inside Advisory Board's Planned New Home"
