Before I opened a single drawing, I went to the building itself — multiple times. I walked the site during the day to read the pedestrian and vehicle patterns feeding into the lobby, then went back after dark to see how the tower read against its surroundings at night (and, frankly, how much it disappeared into them). I also drove a wider loop around the block, looking specifically for the longer sightlines that would matter most for any exterior lighting or signage intervention.

That site work led to the concept I brought to the team: separating the lobby experience and traffic flow for CoStar from the building's other tenants. CoStar would get its own arrival sequence — its own desk, its own identity — instead of sharing a generic multi-tenant lobby. From there, the design extended up through the occupied floors, organizing each one around a clear balance of collaborative gathering space (pantries, informal meeting areas) against quieter, focus-oriented zones, with stair and elevator lobbies treated as connective moments rather than afterthoughts.