After more than twenty years in the same building, IMRF had outgrown its space. Staff were spread across three disconnected floors with no room to expand and few opportunities to come together. Departments operated in silos. Meeting space was limited and inefficient. There was no sense of shared culture — just corridors, cubicles, and a workplace that no longer reflected how the organization actually worked. IMRF didn’t need a refresh. They needed a reset.

IMRF’s challenge wasn’t aesthetic, it was systemic. The physical separation of three floors had quietly reinforced organizational isolation. Departments were locked into rigid footprints with no flexibility to evolve. Meeting rooms were scattered, undersized, and perpetually overbooked. Dedicated community space was nonexistent. Most critically, nearly every workstation was cut off from natural light and visual connection to the outdoors. Their space hadn’t simply aged; it had stopped supporting the people inside it.

EWP’s approach to IMRF’s workplace at 800 Commerce Drive intentionally inverts the conventional office layout. Offices and enclosed meeting rooms are pulled to the interior, allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the floor plate while giving everyone a direct line of sight to the outside. It’s a simple move with an outsized impact, transforming the space into one that feels open, bright, and fundamentally connected.

Work areas are organized into strategic clusters that define flexible zones rather than fixed departments. This structure allows teams to expand or contract organically without disrupting the overall plan. The workplace is designed to breathe and respond to change instead of resist it.

Meeting space was reimagined as a core asset. A diverse mix of room sizes and configurations supports everything from formal boardroom presentations to quick, informal check-ins. The arrival experience reinforces IMRF’s public-facing mission, clearly guiding patrons to service staff, counseling rooms, and the main boardroom with clarity and dignity.

Along primary circulation paths, collaboration zones interrupt routine and encourage spontaneous interaction. These are not symbolic gestures but fully realized destinations — banquette seating, lounge environments, and oversized pantries that function as social hubs rather than break rooms. Each pantry carries its own design identity, featuring sculpted quartz islands, dark wood laminate, bold backsplash tile ranging from warm amber to crisp geometric white, custom coffered ceilings in natural tones, and clusters of organic pendant lighting. The material palette is deliberate and layered, managing the scale of an 80,000-square-foot facility without ever feeling institutional.

Furniture selection followed the same level of rigor. EWP partnered closely with IMRF’s workplace team through multiple rounds of digital mockups and hands-on product evaluations, ensuring that every piece was purposeful, durable, and earned its place.

The result is a workplace that reflects IMRF’s values as clearly as its mission. Three floors became two. Isolation became connection. And a twenty-year challenge finally found a solution designed for the people it serves.