Practical solutions in a real-world setting

Three floors up from its sister company, Gunlocke, you will find Allsteel: planner, designer, manufacturer and deliverer of practical workplace furniture. They created their DC showroom to demonstrate their actionable solutions for workplaces without the typical showroom feel. It’s a space where people can imagine themselves working. Allsteel’s showroom is both a destination to accommodate planning and design meetings and a place for customers to gain leadership acceptance and “buy-in” for their ideas. See how Allsteel is using its “approachable, everyday feel” showroom to change the look and functionality of workplaces across the country.

Allsteel helps customers solve meaningful work problems through every step of the workplace design process. Their member-owner culture inspires cross-functional, creative solutions. Allsteel is part of HNI corporation, a collection of brands that comprise one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the world. Like other HNI companies, JLL has a longstanding relationship with Allsteel. In addition to being a client, Allsteel and parent HNI are partners in Synergy, JLL’s preferred supplier program consisting of over 70 best-in-class global, national and regional suppliers.

In 2012, when Allsteel’s agreement was about the expire, JLL’s Tucker Farman worked with them to renew their lease at 1725 Eye Street, a location they liked given its accessibility to industry partners and customers. Today, the showroom provides a relaxed environment and creates a positive workplace feeling, but this wasn’t always the case. Their floor plan posed one of the project’s greatest challenges as the building’s atrium divided the space into two distinct sides and didn’t provide strong visibility for their entry way.

With help and guidance from JLL and architect Hickok Cole, Allsteel was able to enhance the visual prominence of their entry through the use of glass. A perforated black steel wall filters light from the atrium and showcases the Allsteel brand. The DC showroom highlights architectural features inspired by the materials and scale of Washington’s monuments and roadways. Multiple common areas for meeting and collaborating support flexible furniture neighborhoods where organizations can explore options for space definition and activity-based planning.

Allsteel has since worked closely with JLL’s project management team on a number of showroom build outs, most recently in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston (pictured here) and New York. Each of these projects demanded a thorough understanding of Allsteel’s design model and challenges unique to a showroom project such as finding the right balance between display and function, national consistency and regional specificity.

Furniture must keep up with the demands of today’s evolving workplace, so Allsteel is always planning its next refresh. JLL’s local project manager, Mark Montgomery is already hard at work on this project, and we cannot wait to see and experience the results.