Occupational therapy practitioners ask: “What matters to you?” not “What’s the matter with you?” Members who make up the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) are occupational therapists (OTs), occupational therapy assistants (OTAs), educators, and students who help people of all ages who live with physical, sensory, and cognitive challenges to participate in daily activities (occupations) to live full lives and achieve what matters to them.
The design of the organization’s new headquarters, located in North Bethesda, MD, embodies AOTA’s uncompromising dedication to helping create full and rich experiences for people with occupational challenges, the OTs and OTAs who serve them, and the dedicated AOTA staff who support and facilitate the organization’s mission. “Inclusive and Accessible Design” is the central goal of the new headquarters space. The challenge was to design the space to reflect the diverse needs of OT patients, and to reflect the principles of occupational therapy in the design.
Concurrently with the office redesign, the organization also undertook a complete re-brand. Because these two identity-centric efforts are highly interconnected and needed to be engaged nearly simultaneously, AOTA chose to work with DCS’ branding division on the re-brand effort.
Working closely with on-staff OTs, DCS Design ensured both the space design and branding elements met the diverse needs of people with physical, sensory, and cognitive challenges, while also creating an open, flexible, mission-representative work environment.
Inclusivity and accessibility began at the planning stage with creating wider circulation and corridors to accommodate wheelchairs and other movement and mobility challenges. All public doors throughout the space utilize hands-free openers for accessibility. Furniture was chosen to achieve maximum accessibility including ADA-height cushioned bench seating in the reception area, extended bench seating in the resource library (instead of standard table and chairs), chairs with and without arms and castors in all the conference rooms, adjustable height work surfaces throughout the space, and a custom reception desk which is entirely ADA height with wheelchair accessibility. Light values and access to natural light are also extremely important in creating fully accessible design. Views to the exterior or interior building atrium are visible from any point within the space and are enhanced through glass-front offices positioned on the perimeter, glass conference, meeting and huddle rooms, and a large open collaboration and meeting space placed on the interior building atrium.
Working side-by-side, the branding and design teams ensured the organization’s new space was designed to fully reflect the new brand, and vice-versa. Displayed throughout the space, the new AOTA logo uses letterforms which overlap to create a multi-color palette symbolizing the rich diversity of practice, practitioner, and client. Letters also intersect to express connection and support between OT practitioners and clients. Features of the space were intended to be healing and therapeutic to reflect the work of OT practitioners, with an over-all neutral color palette coupled with strategic pops of AOTA’s new brand colors. The team also worked with an occupational therapist specializing in low vision to ensure visually impaired people can fully distinguish the over-lapping letters and colors.
The space is designed to be open, flexible, and encourage mobility throughout the workday. In fact, upon moving into the new space, AOTA issued each staff member a laptop to make it easy to work from various spaces throughout the day. Common areas such as the lunchroom, reference library, huddle rooms, and the large open meeting space positioned on the interior building atrium, are all designed as multi-functional spaces. Natural elements such as a live moss wall, rustic reclaimed barn wood, and stacked stone are used throughout to bring the outdoors in. A curved cove ceiling detail winds throughout the space connecting all individual areas, symbolizing AOTA as the connection source for practitioners, educators, students, and patients and clients receiving OT services.
Artwork is extremely important to both the feel of the space as well as the mission message. All artwork was created by persons who received occupational therapy services, with his/her story of art as a form of therapy accompanying the various pieces. Additionally, colorful books and artifacts displayed along a publication wall opposite the large conference room, and professional reference books displayed on ends in the public-serving reference library, all serve as purposeful artwork within the design.
AOTA Executive Director, Sherry Keramidas, PhD, FASAE, CAE, shares, “Through the design, you see and experience AOTA’s life-affirming message at every turn in our new space, and we’re reminded of the people we serve. It makes for a very inspiring and satisfying place to work.”
