Henricksen Madison Showroom

Henricksen is a well-established furniture dealer with roots going back to 1962, when Shirley Henricksen founded the business in Des Plaines, Illinois. More than sixty years later, they have expanded into Wisconsin, New York, Tennessee, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.

In 2022 they were outgrowing their Madison, Wisconsin showroom in the American Center Business Park on the Northeast side of town. Not only did they need more space, but they wanted to be closer to the architecture and design community’s hub in downtown Madison. Eventually, they selected a 4,000-square-foot office space at Union Corners on the East Washington corridor and began the process of building out a new showroom.

“In general, the new location is much more in the mix,” said Chris Knoeppel, Principal, Vice President + General Manager for Wisconsin, Henricksen. “45,000 cars pass that location every day.”

They wanted to reuse existing furniture pieces from the old space. Blending the old with the new presented an additional challenge, but through thoughtful finish selections and planning, they were able to accomplish this and reuse several existing pieces in the workstations and conference rooms.

Going from 3,100 sq ft to 4,000 sq ft also allowed them to showcase more relevant work settings that support today’s differing work styles. From individual private spaces to collaborative meeting areas, the new office provides the team and potential customers with a variety of furniture styles and options for working. An example is micro spaces, which range from small hoteling areas, phone booths, and wellness rooms, where someone can step out of the open office and go somewhere for private work or private meetings. “With COVID came a whole new way of communicating with customers, which was through video conferencing,” said Kooiman, “We wanted to have a variety of spaces to have those meetings without disrupting others in the open office.”

The old showroom was very open, and being able to see from one end to the other made it seem small. In the new space, they created more visual privacy between different groups and even located the micro-offices in the center of the floorplan to obscure some sightlines. “The visual privacy makes the space feel larger,” said Kooiman.

In the new environment, there are spaces for design meetings, live design, spaces for entertaining, and spaces to work, making the new office much more suited to hosting guests. Not only that, but there is a rooftop deck and amenities space that can be used for events.

The new showroom meets the needs of the Henricksen team and truly highlights the wide breadth of their capabilities while showcasing new ways of working that are relevant to customers from a variety of market segments.