For EskewDumezRipple, the question came into focus slowly, then all at once.
After more than 25 years on the 31st floor of 365 Canal St., one of New Orleans’ most celebrated architecture and interior design firms had quietly outgrown the space that shaped it. Limited daylight, aging systems and poor acoustics had become daily realities. More telling was the floor plan itself, which devoted more square footage to workstations than to collaboration — a ratio that no longer reflected the way they worked.
“The move was really five years in the making,” explained Jill Traylor, principal and director of interior design at EDR. “We were solving these same workplace questions for clients every day, and it was time to walk the talk.”
That reckoning produced one of the more considered workplace transformations in recent New Orleans design history. EDR’s new studio at 400 Lafayette Street — a 15,298-square-foot space on the third floor of a Warehouse District building — opened in 2025 and has since earned WELL Platinum Certification through the International WELL Building Institute, making it the first project in Louisiana to reach that level of recognition. The certification evaluates spaces across 10 categories including air quality, acoustics, lighting, materials and thermal comfort. A platinum certification, the standard’s highest tier, requires documented performance across all categories, not just a strong showing in select areas.
Before a single layout was drawn, EDR surveyed its own staff, ran room utilization studies and held hands-on planning charrettes. The process surfaced priorities that would shape every major decision, including improved acoustics, access to daylight and greenery, flexible meeting areas and a greater sense of equity across teams.
Sit-tests and workstation mock-ups followed.
“The testing reinforced that small daily comforts matter enormously,” said Traylor. “It pushed us toward workstations that are less one-size-fits-all and more adaptable to how different people actually work.”
The final design delivers just that.
“The best move was creating a spectrum of spaces instead of asking one space to do everything,” she said. “Focused workstations, phone booths, small meeting rooms, pin-up areas, the materials library and the Neutral Ground [a shared social space] all let people choose the right setting for the task at hand.”
Z Smith, EDR’s director of sustainability, said acoustic performance proved to be the most difficult WELL criterion to validate.
“In a renovation of a turn-of-the-century building, you can model and plan only so much,” he noted. “Finding the right level of intervention to support both focus and collaboration turned out to be the biggest challenge.”
Visitors stepping off the elevator at 400 Lafayette are greeted immediately by the “Screen Wall” — a sculpted threshold that functions as both art installation and design manifesto. Built from 26 vertical steel rods, each supporting 20 reclaimed wooden blocks with custom 3D-printed joints, the wall was fabricated entirely in-house from plywood desktops salvaged from the firm’s former Canal Street office.
The winning concept, which emerged from an internal competition, is titled “The Plus Is Us.” From certain vantage points, the composition resolves into the “+” from EDR’s logo.
“‘The Plus Is Us’ stood out because it captured our approach to sustainability in terms of material reuse and subtle branding all at once,” said Traylor. “Fabricating it in-house involved a lot of trial and error and problem-solving, which ultimately made the piece feel even more representative of our culture.”
At the heart of the studio sits the Neutral Ground, a flexible gathering hub named for the grassy medians that divide New Orleans streets. The space works as cafe, informal work area and all-hands meeting room that accommodates close to 50 people.
“We wanted the Neutral Ground to feel more like a shared social space, not just a breakroom,” said Traylor. “Like the city’s neutral grounds, it sits between movement and pause — a casual, eclectic place for gathering, lunch, coffee and conversation, but one that can still be pressed into service for work and collaboration.”
Anchoring the space is an unexpected element — a large, hand-drawn depiction of New Orleans by H. Schultz, that was found while the firm was packing up Canal Street. Framed in solid white oak and measuring 10 feet, 10 inches by 3 feet, 2 inches, it now holds a central position in the Neutral Ground.
“The one thing we lost in the move was our panoramic views of the river,” said Traylor. “This gives it back in a small way, while nodding to our roots — a sense of place, where we started and our connection to New Orleans.”
AOS Interior Environments, the region’s largest design-assist FF&E (furniture, fixtures and equipment) contractor, was brought into the project early. Working within EDR’s clear design intent — a refined industrial palette with darker trim that holds its own against the building’s exposed brick and high ceilings — AOS specified Knoll’s Antenna beam system for the open studio floor. The system runs screens and storage off a central beam with height-adjustable surfaces integrated throughout, keeping the floor open and reconfigurable.
“EDR wanted to move away from the conventional full-panel workstation,” explained Julia Stefanski, designer at AOS. “The flexibility is the point. As the firm evolves, the space can evolve with it, without a renovation to get there.”
For the materials library, AOS provided custom casework by DIRTT — including a pass-through island that stores architectural finish boards from both sides — which gives the space a purpose-built footing. AOS also carried over select pieces from EDR’s former office, among them conference tables and Generation brand chairs.
“We share a belief that clients should reuse what still works and upgrade what doesn’t,” Stefanski says. “That’s the honest version of sustainability.”
Michael Mantese, EDR’s marketing director, said the firm is treating the studio as a living case study, not just a portfolio project.
“[It’s] a way to showcase how our values around design excellence, sustainability, wellness, craft and community translate into real decisions,” he said, adding, “We’re trying to help people understand not just what we designed, but how we think.”
Mantese noted that the Neutral Ground in particular has exceeded expectations as a community asset.
“It has become more successful as a shared civic and cultural space than we even anticipated,” he said. “The studio is a way to give back to the city while also telling a more grounded story about who we are.”
For Traylor, the most honest lesson of the project is still unfolding.
“A workplace is never truly finished on opening day,” she said. “Some spaces still aren’t finished, and continue to be tuned by the habits, rituals and culture of the people who use them every day.”
QUICK LOOK
Years in operation
37
Square footage
15,298
Number of Employees
50-70
Persons in Charge
Jill Traylor, Principal-in-Charge; Andy Redmon, Project Manager and Construction Administrator; Ian O’Cain, Project Architect; Steve Dumez, Design Director
Additional Credits
Collyn Clark, Project Interior Designer; Mignon Antoine, Designer (Interiors); Samantha Lindley, Designer (Architecture)
Architect
EskewDumezRipple
General Contractor
Mayer Building Company
Interior Décor
EskewDumezRipple
Initial Brand Development
EskewDumezRipple
Furnishings
AOS Interior Environments
EskewDumezRipple
400 Lafayette St., Ste. 300, New Orleans
504-561-8686
eskewdumezripple.com
@eskewdumezripple
