Lufthansa’s Americas headquarters had been located in East Meadow, New York for over 50 years, but the space had become too big and outdated. With five floors sitting partially empty, Lufthansa needed to downsize. They sold the property and moved to a multitenant facility at 625 RXR Plaza in Uniondale that they needed to furnish.
Their old space had been very traditional, with high-walled cubicles and minimal conferencing space. For their new space, they wanted to create a modern working environment with plenty of room for collaboration.
“We wanted huddle rooms and collaboration rooms,” said Thilo Koenigsberger, Head of Procurement, Real Estate & Security Affairs, Lufthansa North America. “Together with the help of the architects, we looked for partners to furnish the space this way.”
Lufthansa selected Henricksen to provide the furniture and worked closely with us to design a new kind of working environment. Lufthansa’s leadership wanted employees to be comfortable with the new furniture, so they tested each chair and weighed in on the selection of each fabric to ensure the satisfaction of their workers.
Henricksen provided a mock-up of the proposed workstation typical and spent several days presenting the new design to employees so they could ask questions and get familiar with the concept. This helped create excitement and engagement from the users of the new furniture.
“We went from traditional to open,” said Koenigsberger. “A completely open workspace, where there would be no more panels between stations.”
The new space was designed with open work areas, conference and collaboration rooms, a café, and a lobby. The furniture matches the entire design concept of the building as well as the Lufthansa corporate brand colors.
“It came out beautiful, the furniture is exactly what we envisioned.”
– Thilo Koenigsberger, Head of Procurement, Real Estate & Security Affairs, Lufthansa North America
The new workstations feature height adjustable desks for each employee. Conference rooms, named after major airports from around the world, were furnished to accommodate various ways of working and collaborating. Some have comfortable lounge seating, others have standing height desks, and some have a mixture of both to provide the employees with different options. “None of the conference rooms look the same,” said Koenigsberger, “We achieved maximum flexibility, with options for every size and purpose of meeting, and they have been very well received by the employees.”
“Henricksen was very professional and we established a really great working relationship with them. Installation and delivery went off without a hitch. We couldn’t be happier with the final result.”
– Thilo Koenigsberger, Head of Procurement, Real Estate & Security Affairs, Lufthansa North America
