Adaptive Reuse: Breathing New Life Into Existing Buildings
Major cities around the world compete to have the most iconic new buildings to distinguish their skylines. It is breathtaking what can be done with new technology and innovative design and engineering to create inspiring structures. However, there is another...
Our Worst Client Ever (and We Couldn’t Fire Them)
It finally happened here at DxDempsey. We came up against our worst client ever. They were demanding and indecisive. They wanted it fast, but dragged their feet. They wanted revision...after revision...after revision. They had eyes bigger than their wallets. They...
Workplace 2.0: The Next Generation Post-Pandemic
Post-Pandemic Workplace: The Problem As the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out, what will happen to the workplace post-pandemic? Will it be a hybrid situation? Will it be the workplace or bust? Will co-working spaces see a surge? The problem is that there is no “one size fits...
7 Reasons Why We Can’t Wait to Return to the Workplace
“For people who think we can replace the office and all go virtual now…there's very little of the interpersonal and accidental stuff (online) which is where trust happens. As Isaac Stern the famous violinist said, "Music is what happens between the notes." Well, trust...
Does Your Building Need a Little “Swoosh”? How an Architectural Firm Helped a Bank Become the Most Recognizable Brands in Their Market
Does your building or office reflect your brand? It’s a question that we often ask our clients and we’d love to hear your answer. With DxDempsey celebrating our 14th anniversary this year, we are highlighting a company that has been with us almost since the start ......
What’s Your Dream Office? How a Non-Profit Foundation and an Architectural Firm Answered that Question
What’s your dream office? It’s a question that we ask our clients and it often surprises them. People give lots of thought and energy to the idea of a dream house and spend hours trolling Pinterest boards, but what about the dream office? MICHELE DEMPSEY, AIA,...
Play Your Own Kind of Music: Lessons From Renzo Piano & Tadao Ando
Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers: Centre Pompidou The first time I heard of architect Renzo Piano, it was in connection with his building-turned-inside out, the Center Pompidou in Paris (designed in collaboration with this year’s AIA Gold Medalist, Richard Rogers)....
Tripping The Light Fantastic: How Light Enhances the Brand Experience
Light is a powerful architectural element. As architects, we revere it. We play with it. We rely on it. We are nothing without it. Light’s soulmate and counterpoint is shadow. Together they dance nimbly, tripping the light fantastic. Pritzker Prize winning architect,...
Finding Beauty in the Forgotten: A New Life for Old Materials
One of the five Factors of our Strategic Branded Experience Framework is Sustainability. In this issue, our interiors expert, Andrea Woelkers Giglio, writes the story reminding us that innovation comes from unexpected places and that many materials are now being...
Welcome To Las Vegas: A Design Journey And A Dedication
At the beginning of our design journey to completely “reboot” the existing Welcome to Las Vegas souvenir and novelty store at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, Andrea and I set out to visit the Neon Boneyard for inspiration. It sounds a bit eerie, but it was one of...
Brad Pitt Proves the Power of Environmental Psychology
I always knew I had a connection with Brad Pitt. Believe it or not, it wasn’t because of his undeniable good looks that led me to pick him out on a poster full of young, handsome, up-and-coming actors in 1993 and declare him my boyfriend. The connection came years...
Ringing In The New Year With Our Amazing Interns
We thought that life at DxDempsey was already pretty awesome, then this past Fall we welcomed our interns--Madison, Tanner and Charlie--and, well, now it’s just off the charts! So we are Ringing in the New Year with these amazing individuals who have been helping with...
A Family Affair: How a Law Office Design Proved There Is a Difference
To Caroline Munley, the requirements for the office expansion project were pragmatic ones. Due to their success, Munley Law was out of space and needed to expand into the former dental office next door. During our Visioning Meeting, we heard this need, as well as the...
It’s All About Relationships (And Maybe A Little Kismet)
It was the call I had been waiting for and it came at the worst time. Returning to Newark Airport from an international trip in 2008, I took my phone off airplane mode and saw a message with an area code from Las Vegas. I took my chances in the Customs line and...
Nashville: The Place to Go If Y’All Want a Great Brand Experience
Sometimes it only takes one text in a group thread to change the course of your life. We had our sights set on a Girl’s Weekend in Vegas until Marybeth added this: "I heard a podcast with Blake Shelton and he was talking about all the bars that were opening up in...
Close to Home: Good Design Changes Everything
My five siblings and I grew up in a development, which my Mom viewed as a handsome, well-situated, functional house for raising such a brood, but her heart was always looking toward a dream home. As we all grew up and moved out, the house that was once buzzing with...
Brand Is Perception And Perception Is Reality: How ‘The Office’ Helped Re-brand Scranton From ‘Coal To Cool’
When I heard the news in 2004 that Scranton was going to be the fictional home of Dunder Mifflin in the US adaptation of the show “The Office”, I went into that frozen state of panic, like when you catch a glimpse of a mouse out of the corner of your eye. Because I...
How One Call Turned Flood Damage Into Brand Triumph
On that August afternoon, the flood waters in Benton, PA kept rising and Tina, the First Columbia Bank & Trust Branch Manager, watched as they pushed against the exterior glass door on the North side of the building. At about three feet high, the pressure was too...
5 Ways Your Workplace Is Stifling Productivity
Every profit-driven company wants to optimize the productivity of their greatest assets, their workforce. The problem is that most workplaces stifle productivity without even realizing it. A study of over 2,500 public and private sector professionals revealed that 97%...
What is a Strategic Branded Experience?
THE FIVE LEAF CLOVER THAT DRIVES BOTTOM-LINE RESULTS Michele Dempsey, AIA, LEED AP A brand is a promise wrapped in an experience. Though many corporations preach about branding and building a brand through logos and fl ashy marketing campaigns, very few focus on how...
A Company is only as Extraordinary as its People: Meet the DxDempsey X Factor
MICHELE DEMPSEY, AIA, LEED AP I started DxDempsey 15 years ago in an attic apartment in Scranton. They were lonely times. Today, I have a team I love working with that feels more like a family. They make work a happy place. Sometimes I like to imagine that we will...
Secret Super Powers: Tapping the Hidden Talent of People in Your Company
One day I had a casual conversation with Corey in my office as we both prepared coffee in the close quarters of our break room. Somehow, (not surprisingly if you know me) we got on the topic of ice cream. I told him that I couldn’t believe that someone hadn’t come...