“Cubicles were out, plain and simple,” Hollander says. “We always try to do what we can to customize the standard fare, but at the end of day, cubicles are still rectangles.”

This assignment was to be different. McCann asked for circular workstations. Initially, Hollander counseled against the idea. “Circles don’t fit into square buildings very easily,” he notes.

But Hollander was soon as enthusiastic as the client, scribbling designs on napkins for undulating clumps of stations separated by curved walls. During the formative stages of the project, dTank worked to help Gensler realize its vision. “dTank’s designer took this and developed it into a set of freestanding workstations that nested together, similarly serpentine but with much greater flexibility,” he says. “I was very impressed with way dTank took the idea to a point where it could be implemented relatively quickly.”

Replacing the original six-foot-high, four-sided workspaces with “neighborhoods” of circular workstations achieved McCann’s initial objective: to generate more buzz, communication, and activity inside the office.

The circular workspaces were also a key ingredient in a design that would reflect the advertising agency’s mixed culture: the more conservative corporate executives and “the green-haired creatives,” Hollander says. “And the design was about exactly that contrast and how to marry the two sides.” The result is a space that is half raw industrial, half glossy and new. Polished white glass sits atop the original exposed metal floor. And the offices and workstations have a wood veneer but a plywood construction.

dTank’s design brought aesthetic surprises that delighted both the agency, whose New York architects had collaborated with dTank on another project. The tops of the 10-by-three-foot workstations are curved and of varying heights, which ended up producing a curving, multilevel landscape. Another surprise, Hollander says, were the “peekaboos” – holes people can peek through between workspaces where the panels and workstations don’t quite fit together.

“The interesting way they fit or don’t fit together leaves uniqueness all throughout the plan,” Hollander notes.

As it turned out, the very design element Hollander advised against turned into a key selling point for dTank. “dTank fills a niche in the marketplace that the major manufacturers can’t,” Hollander says. “No major manufacturer is going to provide a circular workspace. There’s not enough demand for it. dTank can provide this style in smaller quantities on a personalized design basis, and they can be very successful at it.”

In the end, the circular workstations were the best aesthetic choice, Hollander says, and they solidified both the relationship between dTank and Gensler and the ongoing relationship between dTank and McCann. “The curved workstations are immensely appealing. It has been a win-win for everybody.

“dTank really took our trust and delivered on it.”