Recently, I had an opportunity to take in Amsterdam, a city that has somehow eluded me in my travels. Free time was limited so my exploration was fast and furious. It would have been tragic if I were to have made my way back home without gleaning something meaningful in the form of inspiration. I had long heard the stories and the tourist-y trappings of what makes the city world-famous, but I remained determined to sneak in an opportunity to develop an enlightened perspective on the city, it’s culture and of course, it’s design. 

Peep the slideshows for a blurred peek at some of what inspired me along the way. Highlights include simply walking the neighborhoods avoiding bicycles, soaking in the charm of the cities many canals, deciphering the quirky architecture, foraging into hotels for hospitality and sustenance, dipping into record shops, a trip to the MOCO for a street art exhibit, a random neighborhood art fair/ street festival, window shopping antiques, and a long-anticipated peruse through the Droog experience. I can’t wait to get back!

Architecture + Design

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Retail

Food

I’ve grown up going to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida every few years for almost my entire life. So, I’ve seen a lot of the changes and improvements they’ve made over the years. I remember when they moved from printed tickets to ticket cards and then the introduction of the FastPass system in 1999 – but my all-time favorite technology has been the MagicBand and MyMagic+ system they launched in 2013.

I remember the absolute uproar over these when they were first launched. Everyone was so concerned that Big Mouse (- vs. Big Brother) was watching their every move and many couldn’t get around that discomfort. Cut to 2017 when my husband and I took our trip to Walt Disney World in September, practically every single person in the park was wearing one. Given the ubiquity of trackers like FitBit, Garmin, and the Apple Watch, this new openness to the MagicBands makes sense.

In fact, they’re so popular now that you can actually buy bands with custom designs on them rather than just using the free ones provided to guests staying in a Disney-owned resort.

If you’re not familiar with what the MagicBands are, they act as your keys to the kingdom – literally. Guests can use them as their room key, credit card, park admission, photo collector, and ride FastPass holder. They also offer a TON of data to Disney in the form of a long-range radio signal that lets them know where visitors go in the park and how long they stay there.

A little creepy? Maybe, but also very awesome in terms of offering personalized experiences that make each trip to Disney that much more magical.

For example, on this most recent trip, my husband and I checked into the park by tapping our MagicBands on the RFID reader at the gate and after our tickets had been accepted, the cast member manning the entrance looked up, smiled, and wished us both a happy anniversary. How did she know that? It’s a fact I provided to our hotel when we booked our reservation and they then linked to our MagicBands. Later that evening, during the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, we stopped to get our pictures taken, and as the photographer was putting together our photos to link them to us, she asked which characters we were dressed up as – very casually – and from that point on, anytime a cast member saw me or my husband the radio frequency from our bands ID’d us as our respective characters and they responded to us as such, asking things like “slaying any dragons this evening?”. I think my husband maybe got a little TOO used to being called Sir and Prince during our candy pilgrimage that evening.

Fun Fact: Disney hands out over 250 TONS of candy during 32 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Parties (and I think we had a combined 1 Ton ourselves).

Later that night, we took a ride on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and our car stopped during the ride to let a handicapped passenger exit. This is a normal occurrence, but this time we stopped right in front of a “high value target” on the ride, allowing my husband to rack up, a normally unprecedented, ONE MILLION points on the ride.

This information was, of course, linked to our bands and we ended up with this rather hilarious picture where I’m still trying to get points and he’s just being annoying and steering the car away from the targets. Marriage.

Our trip went on like that for the weekend, every time we interacted with a cast member, be it at the front gate or as we were checking in to use a FastPass for the new Avatar ride, they used the information gathered on our MagicBands to add moments of unexpected magic to our journey.

This ability to create custom moments is incredible, especially when you consider that just one of Disney’s four parks has annual visitors in the range of 20 million people, that means they’re creating unique memories like this for around 55,000 people per day in just ONE PARK. That’s mind-blowing.

The “What Ifs” this kind of data brings are nearly endless:

• What if Disney could use your MagicBand for interactive displays in shops and other areas of the parks?
• What if they could ensure more accurate wait times by reading the movement information on MagicBands in line?
• What if they could then notify you when the wait time is at a certain range for your favorite rides?
• What if you could get a customized list of food/restaurant recommendations based on places you’ve already eaten in the park?
• What if photographers could take candid shots of you enjoying the parade or sharing a Mickey Ice Cream bar with your kids and link those to your account for you?
• What if Characters could greet you by name as well as Cast Members?
• What if Disney could optimize the design of pathways or increase cast member presence at specific locations based on the density of Magic Bands in the area?

But then… what if this kind of big data collection started spilling into the real world? How would the shopping experience be different if we let them know more about us as we walked into the store? What would the restaurant of the future look like if they were able to know our food preferences and visit habits as soon as we sat down? Can you imagine walking into a store and having a personal shopper who already knows your size and can see what your purchase and return history to help you find your next favorite outfit?

Some might see this level of big data as intimidating, but if the information is used to make our lives better and maintain some level of personal privacy – isn’t that what technology is all about?

After all, one could argue that the first automobile was greeted with the same level of trepidation, but I’d rather ride in a car than on a horse for my daily commute.

Photo Credit: Disney Press Kit

This holiday season, Chick-fil-A dropped their aprons and took the streets of New York City to gift something other than its famous chicken recipe. Opening a limited-time pop-up space, the restaurant brand created a holiday experience located in the heart of the city’s SOHO neighborhood. Named The Time Shop, the pop-up invites visitors to “give the gift of time”, with the ultimate goal to “inspire and equip guests to gift quality time to their loved ones this year.”

As a Chick-fil-A fanatic, I had to see what The Time Shop was all about. Upon arrival, I was given an RFID bracelet that I scanned at the various photo-op stations around the space. This connected to my email address so that my selfies could be sent to me when I was done. Genius!

After check-in, I was free to explore. It only made sense that this Time themed space was covered with clocks of all shapes and sizes and that when I entered a smiling face would say “you’re right on time.” In addition to this, the halls and each room resembled the North Pole you see in movies—lots of Christmas trees, ribbons, bows, snowflakes, and garland.

Through out the experience, visitors can hop into four different photo stations, join storybook readings, decorate life-size felt snowmen, or grab a warm cookie/peppermint milkshake sample. As part of the spaces “giving the gift of time” philosophy, there are minimal digital touchpoints so that visitors spend time together rather than with screens. I’m so glad Chick-fil-a took this into consideration when designing the space. It perfectly aligns with the experience’s purpose and though people may not notice this while traveling through the space, it’s a conscious move on their part.

Wrapping up the experience, I took a seat in the Time Room to write a card to the person I would be gifting my time to. In this case, I gifted my mother “Four Hours Of Holiday Cookie Baking”. After this, I handed my card to a talented calligrapher that replicated my note on a festive red card that I was able to take home and will deliver to my mom in person.

My experience at the Time Shop was short and sweet, but I loved seeing a restaurant brand go beyond food to create a meaningful experience that brings people together. These days brands must go out of their way to provide an authentic and unique experience to the table. If you’re in New York City and looking for some holiday cheer, make a reservation at The Time Shop before it leaves!

Corix tasked NELSON Worldwide with renovating their new corporate headquarters in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The company, dedicated to the implementation of sustainable water, wastewater, and energy utility infrastructure solutions, was relocating from their suburban headquarters to the new downtown Chicago location to improve the recruitment and retention of employees.

NELSON transformed their new offices to create an entirely different atmosphere from their previous space. Corix’s original offices were compartmentalized with minimal opportunities for collaboration. In contrast, the new space utilizes fewer private offices creating a more transparent environment, while functional furniture and moveable walls create natural partitions while still offering opportunities for collaboration. Read more here.

This year, a diverse team of NELSON design leaders attended industry-defining events, representing practices across our organization, including workplace, civic and justice, education, hospitality, mixed-use, multifamily, and adaptive reuse and repositioning. Each of these leaders was there to be inspired and to continue boldly transforming the human experience through design and architecture.

We are excited to share our findings and insights around key themes that are driving innovation and transformation. Join us as we explore the intersection of creativity, purpose, and innovation in design, discovering how these trends are poised to influence the spaces we inhabit for years to come. In this report, we will cover trends in sustainability, connection, health and wellness, equality and equity, aesthetic influences, and trends that push the boundaries of design.

The conversation in HR departments is evolving from employee wellness to employee well-being. What’s the difference, and how can law firms address this shift through progressive office design?

2018 ushered in a strong economy, a stock market rollercoaster, and some controversial trade policy decisions. How has this impacted our industry? The labor market remains strong and interest rates are beginning to rise. We expect end users to start asking for materials that last longer than a short-term lease, as we witness occupancy costs rising. Trade tariffs are prompting interior designers to pay attention to where a product is manufactured. Many foreign manufacturers are raising prices to protect their profits and to stay in business. We expect that this issue will be top-of-mind for many of our clients in 2019.

We now have plenty of projects to go around, but we don’t necessarily have the labor pool to construct them. We would expect to see construction costs rising and general contractors to become more selective on which assignments to produce. What does all of this mean for interior design projects in 2019? Let’s have some fun and take a shot at what we can expect to see this year!