In the words of Gensler’s design manager Marcus Hopper, “This is basically a new building inside an old building.” Countless ships have been repaired in this 55,000 square-foot machine shop, going back to the days of the Spanish-American War of 1898, and Gensler decided to leave the old gantry cranes, lifts, pipes, beams and roofing as a visual focal point an also an homage to the past. In keeping with the building’s history, they designed the conference rooms to look like shipping containers; however, in keeping with the building’s bright future, these rooms have been named after some of Gusto’s 60,000 small business clients: the Bait and Tackle Shop, the Bakery, the Florist, the Gelateria, the Ramen Shop, and so on.

Gensler is committed to designing spaces that place the needs of employees first, and as such they involved Gusto staff in every stage of the process: team members helped come up with ideas like the heated floors and no-shoes policy, explored early designs in virtual reality, and even helped paint a 40-foot mural celebrating their customers. “We want our office to feel like a home,” explains Gusto’s  CEO and co-founder Josh Reeves, “to be comfortable and authentic.” 

To help with this homely, authentic feeling, we installed our Palisades Grid system as a series of stylish zone dividers in the open-plan atrium space at the heart of the building – and, given that our Palisades Grid was inspired by Californian furniture designer Muriel Coleman’s mid-century modern shelving units, it felt great to be bringing it back to the Golden State.