Like many growing companies, Healthcare Payment Specialists has expanded over the years into adjacent leasable space in the same building. Eventually they occupied several suites in the same building, but these spaces remained divided by walls. It was soon apparent that this separation of departments did not create a working environment conducive to collaboration and it was affecting employee morale.

After studying how the company functioned, we devised a plan to remove walls between separate suites and to create central shared spaces, such as copy, file and supply rooms. A shared kitchen that was part of one of the suites became more easily accessible to all employees. The resulting large central gathering space serves as a lunch room for daily use, and for occasional all-office meetings and presentations. To differentiate this space from the surrounding working areas, the ceiling was raised and a perimeter soffit was added, which incorporates cove lighting to illuminate the ceiling.