Who We Are - Core Values
Design Workshop is an ideologically based firm that
originated in academia.
It has evolved as a learning organization, seeking out
complex and challenging projects wherever intellectual
interests lead. From the beginning, the members of the
firm have sought to be generalists, willing to tackle
any project concerning the land. Their guiding tenet has
been that the work must take the most comprehensive perspective
and use a collaborative approach to resolve issues. The
goal is to do work that matters, work that makes a difference,
work that contributes to the well-being of the planet
- in other words, to do well by doing good.
The firm is driven by two values: transparency and
holism.
Transparency embraces openness at all levels. It is manifest
in the firm's name, which was chosen to describe the collaborative
process the founders wished to foster, a process that
values and invites every opinion and that keeps the decision-making
process out in the open. Input is sought from a wide array
of people. This doesn't mean design by committee and it
doesn't mean senior designers relinquish leadership roles.
It does mean input from everyone is valued, down to front-desk
personnel, the marketing team and finance staff, all of
whom frequently take part in openstudio design reviews.
Holism refers to the comprehensive approach that has
been practiced at Design Workshop since its founding in
1969. From the beginning, the emphasis has been on using
a comprehensive and holistic approach to design and planning
that takes into account a spectrum of elements, including
those outside the purview of a particular project. It
does so at a multitude of scales in order to understand
the broader context of an individual project and allow
various levels of interest and authority to cross boundaries
that usually separate them or to integrate technical disciplines
that ordinarily operate in relative isolation from each
other.
