Design Directions

Client: Nilan Johnson Lewis, Minneapolis

Designer: Cuningham Group Architecture

The Minneapolis law firm Nilan Johnson Lewis, PA, prides itself on its collaborative nature and innovative thinking. And it recently moved into new offices in two stories of the 1950s-vintage One Financial Plaza, which boasts floor-to-ceiling windows and an impressive view of the urban landscape and skyline.

But the space’s old décor didn’t match the youthful, forward-looking vibe of its prospective tenants. “It was dark, somber, depressing, dreary, inward-looking, and crowded,” says Sara Rothholz Weiner, associate principal at Cuningham Group Architecture, PA, in Minneapolis. “We had to transform this mid-century diamond in the rough, this place that was an oppressive accountant-type environment, into something that was light and energetic.”

It was apparent, anyway, that a traditional office layout wouldn’t work. The client may be a law firm, but when it comes to work habits and culture, it has more in common with an ad agency or a design house. Nilan Johnson Lewis wanted diverse gathering spaces for two or 10 or 60 people, ranging from casual nooks to formal boardrooms. Weiner says that the client pushed her to sculpt and manipulate the space so that practice groups would feel holistically connected, and that serendipitous collaborations and meetings would happen. So that’s what she did.

“Theirs is a very open culture,” she says. “Except for maybe a storage room, I don’t know that there are any spaces that one can close off and not have a visual connection. The team rooms are pure, open, floating spaces. There’s lots of glass. We talked a lot about different extents and gradations of privacy.”

The visual openness of the space has the very desirable side effect of bringing natural light and sightlines into the work areas. Weiner says the design team, which included representatives from Cuningham Group and the law firm, decided early on to encourage interaction and collaboration with its design.

“We decided it was going to be rational, easy-to-understand space that would build a little bit on urban design concepts,” she explains. “There’s a main street, and then as you walk down corridors, you’ve got view vistas at the end. You’re connecting back to the greater urban landscape and the sky.”