One Cool Move

When visitors entered the old Carmichael Lynch building on Eighth Street and Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, they were greeted by a wall cluttered with black and white glossies. Most of them were offbeat portraits: someone wearing a Scandinavian knitted hat with a T-shirt or a person loaded down with DFL pins, hats and vests. One featured a “Parking for Polish Only” sign and another showed a person literally piled with Twins gear. There was a dog-and-owner photo and a few folks pictured reading or playing with their children. Most of the images were humorous, a few are thoughtful, and all were engaging.

The photographs are portraits of employees, a welcome committee of sorts to an advertising agency known for its creative people and ideas. Last month, Carmichael Lynch transported those people—and the distinctive company culture they’ve created—into new offices. Growing at a steady pace for the past 45 years, the agency has seen many office spaces. In 1962, the firm began its life in the basement of cofounder Jack Carmichael’s house and moved to the Charles Pillsbury Mansion on East 22nd Street in Minneapolis in 1976, and then to its highly visible corner on Eighth and Hennepin in 1987.

Because of its growth and its changing work environment, Carmichael Lynch moved to a new, more open environment in the Wyman-Partridge Building, an industrial warehouse on the corner of Fifth Street and First Avenue in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. Carmichael Lynch’s President and Managing Partner John Colasanti believes the move, like the agency’s previous moves, will be a catalyst for company growth.

Collaboration Space

The search for a new building began about a year and half ago, Colasanti says, but the impetus behind the move had been brewing for some time. The work pattern of Carmichael Lynch employees was changing, and Colasanti could see that their old space was becoming a challenge. Teams, rather than individuals, were working on long-term projects, and they needed more collaboration space.

“We’re doing less department work that’s siloed and more work with teams getting together,” Colasanti says. “Our core brand teams are coming up with solutions and cross pollinating. It was becoming physically challenging to sit in a group and work [at the old location].”

Described as an eight floor “beehive” by Colasanti—with offices tucked beneath stairs and cubicles lego-locked together in various configurations—the agency’s old building at Eighth and Hennepin didn’t have the large floor lay-outs the agency required. Carmichael Lynch has been growing a steady 15 percent every year and growing its staff at the same pace. “We needed a more open environment that was conducive to people working together,” Colasanti says.