Background:

This Fortune 500 B2B firm is headquartered in the US Midwest. The suburban campus houses 1,600+ employees across four buildings. Three of the buildings are supported by a single cafeteria, which contains a kitchen area, serving area, and dining area. The picture to the right here? It's great clipart, but not what we look like today… please follow this LINK, as a reference.

The kitchen serving area is open from 7:30-9:00a and again from 11:30a-1:30p, Monday-Friday. There are vending machines for soft drinks and snacks. We know it’s shocking, but this is the ONLY time the cafeteria space is used.

Problem:

So, we have a large commons space, which should be highly attractive for use for meetings, for collaboration, for sitting out of your desk to work, etc. But, it’s absolutely empty other than the two meal times. In addition to this, the cafeteria’s aesthetics are significantly outdated:

1) The floors scream 1980’s high school basketball court (there are even trophy cases along one wall!)

2) The furniture is firmly grounded in the 1970’s vision of 1950’s practicality

3) And, with the wood floor, glass and sheetrock walls, and high ceilings, it’s more than a little noisy, too