Designing for Transformation
Oyster Mushrooms, Sketched in My Woods: Oyster mushrooms clustered together, representing visible transformation supported by invisible networks.
Transformation isn’t just a new space or a new story. It’s both.
I’ve worked on start-up cultural institutions like the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, and I’ve worked with companies like Freeman reinventing themselves from the inside out. What struck me is how similar the challenge is.
Both museums and corporations often mistake transformation for cosmetic change: a new building, a new floor plan, a new logo, a new slogan. But transformation doesn’t happen when you change the surface. It happens when you redesign the visible and the invisible together.
Freeman Headquarters, Dallas
At Freeman, that meant looking beyond cubicles and finishes and examining how departments actually functioned. Sales and design didn’t just need different kinds of desks — they needed acknowledgment that they worked differently, and that the office could either amplify the divide or help bridge it.
Freeman Before: Rows of beige cubicles, uniform and isolating, with little natural light.
Freeman After: Freeman HQ redesigned — open plan with greenery dividers, natural light, and modern finishes.
Transformation wasn’t about making the office prettier — it was about changing how people related to one another.
Freeman Before: Dark cubicles with overhead bins, heavy and closed off
Freeman After: Freeman HQ stair and café hub — bright, open circulation that encourages collaboration.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
At Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, transformation wasn’t about creating another museum in a constellation. It was about recalibrating the canon: what does art history look like when you tell it from the Gulf instead of New York? That shift only mattered if it was embedded into operations, collection management, conservation, education — the unseen systems behind the galleries.
The Deeper Lesson
Transformation is rare because it’s uncomfortable. It requires leaders to hear what employees and communities really feel — not just what the C-Suite or donors assume. It requires space therapists, not decorators. It requires functional design that works as hard as it inspires.
Nature offers a reminder: oyster mushrooms may look sudden and complete, but they only exist because of a vast, invisible mycelium web beneath the soil. What’s visible is only as strong as the unseen network that supports it. Organizations are no different — they only transform when culture, operations, and environment grow in alignment.
The lesson: transformation isn’t about looking different. It’s about aligning the visible and the invisible so the story you tell is the story you live.
Freeman Before: An endless corridor of cubicles and filing cabinets.
Freeman After: Creative lounge and conference room with flexible seating and bold lighting.