Design Strategy by Lens
Lens is a design strategy, research, and innovation practice within Shepley Bulfinch. We design beyond typical boundaries of architecture, utilizing a visionary approach to collaborate with our clients and develop transformative solutions that help organizations, communities, and our planet to flourish.
Design Strategy by Lens
Lens is a design strategy, research, and innovation practice within Shepley Bulfinch. We design beyond typical boundaries of architecture, utilizing a visionary approach to collaborate with our clients and develop transformative solutions that help organizations, communities, and our planet to flourish.
Explore practices by category
Essence helps us understand what is uniquely valuable about a person, organization, or place.
When we understand something’s essence, it becomes easier to recognize its potential and guide change in a way that feels coherent, meaningful, and alive.
Is your project or team reaching its full potential?
Regenerative Design
Regenerative design restores ecosystems and strengthens communities – creating the conditions for lasting prosperity.
With an expertise in integrative, sustainable, and biophilic design – we draw on living systems thinking to spark vitality, innovation, and meaningful growth. We align teams around a place’s unique essence and lead a clear, experiential process that shapes vision, clarifies priorities, and drives action – delivering a focused roadmap and lasting impact.
Project Spotlight: Regeneration Meets Design
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
Exhibit Staging Center
Pittsburgh, PA
What does it mean for a project to be regenerative? Beyond sustainability, these projects enrich and give back. They support our human relationships—with each other and the planet—and help us feel happier and healthier. Lens supported the Exhibit Staging Center in uniting the team and community to envision and achieve a project that fosters and elevates health and well-being, connects us to place, revitalizes nature, and gives more than it takes.
Developing Organizations
When teams unlock their full potential, they’re able to move forward together.
We facilitate strategic planning, change management, and leadership retreats that empower teams to move forward with clarity and purpose. Through creative engagements and insightful analysis, we align strategy and culture – resulting in cohesive teams, actionable plans, and meaningful change.
Project Spotlight: From New Space to Reimagined Organization
Donor Network of Arizona
Tempe, AZ
Advocating and facilitating change looks different for every organization. Though a process may outline the general path forward, a rich engagement and connection with each client leads to the best outcomes.
Measuring Impact
Research helps teams assess past efforts and move forward with confidence.
Our occupancy evaluations and culture assessments help clients benchmark progress and make evidence-based decisions that support high-performing projects and teams, promote wellbeing, and catalyze transformation.
Project Spotlight: Linking Healthy Culture to Employee Well-Being
Multiple US-based design firms
New Realities: Employee Wellness and Organizational Culture in Design Firms
Industry benchmarking research with customized firm-level reporting helps industry leaders navigate the post-pandemic employee engagement landscape and build cultures where diverse design professionals can thrive.