3 min read December 2023 — The return to the office after the pandemic has created new design opportunities for companies, President Rachel Zsembery of architecture and design collaborative Bergmeyer told Invest: in an interview. “I think there’s a recognition that working physically together is one of the best ways to provide active and passive mentoring and to create visibility for team members at all levels.”
What have been some of the biggest highlights and achievements for the company in the past year?
The last 12 months have been exciting at Bergmeyer. We have continued to expand and enhance the design services that we provide, including architecture, interiors, brand identity and strategy, and environmental graphic design. We’ve been fortunate that many of the markets we serve have continued to be strong even in this uncertain economy, especially our consumer environments market (retail, restaurant and hospitality), higher ed, and commercial repositioning. We’ve also seen our multifamily housing market continue to grow even with the headwinds of this turbulent economy.
One of the other items to note is that we opened our third office, in Columbus, Ohio, in the fall of 2022. That joins our offices in Boston and Los Angeles. We’ve grown by over 20% firmwide in the past year.
The past 12 months have been extremely exciting at Bergmeyer. As a design collaborative, we have continued to expand and enhance the design services we provide, including architecture, interiors, brand identity, brand strategy and environmental graphic design. And we have been fortunate that many of the markets that we serve have continued to be strong even in this uncertain economy, especially our consumer environments (retail, restaurant, hospitality), higher education, and commercial repositioning. We have also seen our multi-family housing market continue to grow even with the headwinds of a turbulent economy.
We opened our third office in Ohio in the fall of 2022, joining our offices in Boston and LA, and we have grown by over 20% firm-wide in the past year in support of our expanded service and market offerings. Columbus is home to a vibrant thriving design community with world-class talent and is making a name for itself as a fast-growing innovation hub. We feel that we are well positioned with three offices across the US to support our national, international and regional clients.
How are your clients shifting their priorities, preferences and needs when it comes to their working space?
Everybody is asking themselves the fundamental question of what the purpose of working together in a physical environment is. I’m seeing a couple of different things driving their priorities based on their answer to that question. The most resounding response typically is that they are looking for ways to build community and drive employee engagement by bringing them into the office. There’s also a recognition that working physically together is one of the best ways to provide active and passive mentoring and to create visibility for team members at all levels. When companies can create meaningful connection opportunities with their colleagues in a physical environment it starts to decrease feelings of isolation.
We’re also seeing that there are ergonomic and technological benefits that employees enjoy within their workspace. Companies are shifting the way that they’re using their space because they’re realizing that they need to provide a wide range of options for types of workplaces within their offices based on the type of activity that their employees are engaging in, whether it’s active collaboration, heads-down work, or spaces where employees can recharge and reset. Thinking about the broad range of uses of your workplace is important.
The last piece is that companies are looking at ways to infuse their workplace with their brand DNA physically and graphically, to reinforce their company’s culture and build a sense of belonging. Belonging is an important component of company culture and employee retention, and it can be fostered through workplace design.
What differences do you see between generations when it comes to design?
Specific to Gen Z and the TikTok generation, what we’re seeing in our research is that they’re looking to create lasting memories through highly experience-rich environments. They’re focused on sustainable and ethically sourced and produced products, and in-store environments as a result of a shift in a holistic understanding of product and place. It’s not just a sustainable product that people are looking for; they’re looking at what this product sits on and how that piece of furniture or fixture is made and how it is sourced. I also believe that they’re looking for a frictionless design. They’re looking for environments that prioritize convenience and a feeling of authenticity.
One of the reasons that we expanded our design services is that we’re seeing that those authentic experiences need to align across all channels. A brand’s DNA is not just in the architecture and interior design of the physical space but also in the digital presence, the web presence, the marketing and all the brand engagement opportunities. We need to make sure that there’s consistency and alignment across all those touchpoints in a customer journey.
One of the reasons why I love designing for consumer environments is that consumer preferences and purchasing habits are ALWAYS changing – there is a constant opportunity for evolution and improvement, and the best brands not only acknowledge this factor, but they embrace it. We create adaptive environments that allow brands to authentically evolve as they synthesize customer feedback.
One of the reasons that Bergmeyer has evolved into a Design Collaborative practice with an integrated suite of design services is that we believe that we are best able to support our clients when we design not only a brand’s physical spaces, but also the digital platforms, websites, and brand engagement opportunities to ensure that there is consistency and alignment all touchpoints of a customer journey and that they build upon and enhance each other.
How is sustainability impacting your retail design business?
We’re committed to making positive impacts in the fight against climate change and understanding the impact of our projects in retail design as well as all the markets we serve. We’re focused on three impact areas: carbon, waste and toxicity. We’re exploring opportunities for improvement, whether that has to do with logistics and transportation, specification of materials, construction, production and manufacturing processes, energy use, and the total life cycle of these elements.
One of the challenges in the retail industry is that there is so much promotional material deployed within stores that is constantly landfilled. We are looking at the opportunities for designing for adaptability rather than single-purpose elements within those environments.
At Bergmeyer, we do a lot of work in the adaptive reuse of existing buildings because the greenest building is the one that’s already standing. That’s one of the common areas of focus across all our markets. We’re also focused on new building technologies, such as modular construction and mass timber construction. Both strategies significantly reduce the overall carbon budget for buildings and reduce waste through material reduction.
What regulations are you keeping an eye on?
We are closely watching two. The first is the push for fully electrified buildings, eliminating the option of using fossil fuels for heating, cooling and cooking sources that will have a huge impact on the building industry. It’s something that is under discussion in every community in the Northeast and pushing across the United States in terms of the way that we look at specifying our building systems. We are especially mindful o the significant operational impacts that these changes have on our work in restaurants and student dining halls.
In the Boston metro area, we’re keeping our eye on the impact of new legislation called MBTA Communities. That legislation requires an increased density of housing within communities that are served directly by subway, bus and commuter rail services. We’re keeping our eye on that to see what trends emerge as these communities assess and evolve their zoning and what projects will become feasible as a result of this new legislation that will directly benefit these communities.
We are currently keeping an eye on the many changes that are proposed to national and state building and energy codes that will impact our projects across the country. One of these is the current push for moving to fully electrified buildings, eliminating the option of using fossil fuels for heating and cooling and cooking sources.
Locally in the Boston metro area, we are also keeping our eyes on the impact of the new MBTA Communities legislation. This legislation requires an increased density of housing to be provided as of right within communities served directly by subway, bus and commuter rail services. Local communities are currently creating their compliance strategies. And finally, we are keeping our eyes on inclusionary zoning regulations and ways in which Bergmeyer can work with developers to increase the stock of affordable housing within the Boston metro area – a major area of concern for our region.
What is your outlook for Bergmeyer and the Greater Boston market within the next two to three years?
In the Greater Boston market, we’re continuing to see the expansion of investment in a lot of startup high-tech companies that are starting to mature and looking to put down roots as they grow and expand not only for their workplace needs but also research and development as well as manufacturing.
As a firm, we feel that our unique mix of services and the integrated way in which we are providing them to our clients, from architecture to brand identity to interior design to environmental graphic design, is a unique space for us in the market and we’re seeing a tremendous positive response to that.
We feel that the next two years are going to continue to allow us to create deeper relationships with the clients that we serve and to be able to help them evolve as they navigate some of the challenges of the economy over the next several years.
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