DoorDash NYC Tenant Improvement

The Challenge

The redesign of DoorDash’s New York City flagship office presented several distinctive challenges centered on aligning the company’s bold brand identity with the spatial and cultural context of New York City. At the outset of the project, HKS asked three defining questions: How can we elevate DoorDash’s brand of boldness? How can we weave Brain Health thought leadership into their existing workplace policies? Can we do these things while making it work specifically for their New York City employees?

A primary challenge was to create an environment that supports employee well-being, cognitive clarity, and collaboration. The goal was to create a flagship workspace that not only reflected the company’s global brand but also catered specifically to the needs of New York-based employees.

Another key consideration was to design a physical space that respected the historic 1909 building while modernizing it to fulfill contemporary functionality, efficiency and performance requirements. Furthermore, the project’s success relied upon leveraging vast amounts of user data, including employee surveys, focus groups, and occupancy metrics. These insights were essential for balancing energy, collaboration, and rest in ways that addressed the unique demands of modern urban work environments. In addition, the design team faced the challenge of integrating sustainable and regionally sourced materials while adapting the space to environmental and organizational best practices.

The Design Solution

The design team, led by HKS, responded to these challenges with an innovative, research-driven approach that seamlessly blended historic preservation, modern systems and DoorDash’s brand identity.

Drawing from HKS’ Brain Health research, the team implemented five affordances across the 36,800-sf space that promoted employee well-being: focus, exploration and ideation, collaboration and co-creation, rest and reflection, and social connection. Inspired by the city’s grid and network of pocket parks, the office is intentionally organized into borough-inspired neighborhoods, mimicking the rhythm of New York’s urban landscape. These sections offer employees distinct environments tailored to different work modes, including quiet zones for deep focus, ideation spaces for creativity and pocket-park-inspired areas for reflection and relaxation. Social spaces are interspersed to foster meaningful connections and a sense of community between New York-based teams and visiting DoorDash employees from around the world.

Architecturally, the design honors the building’s history by restoring original mosaic flooring while blending it with sustainable finishes, modern lighting and acoustic treatments. Locally sourced materials reinforce a connection to the city while reducing the environmental footprint and adaptive reuse principles ensured minimal intervention with existing structures.

Experiential branding elements such as hand-painted murals, subway-inspired mosaics, and the use of DoorDash’s brand colors throughout the space visually celebrate both the company’s identity and New York’s character. Fabricated features honor all five of the city’s boroughs and feature locally sourced furnishings. Like walking New York City streets, moments of discovery appear around corners: bold, colorful expressions that connect employees to DoorDash values and inject vibrancy into the day. Additionally, acoustically tuned phone booths, abundant natural lighting and socially dynamic hubs support both individual focus and team collaboration. The flexible design empowers employees with the ability to select workspaces that best matched their daily needs and tasks.

The Design Impact

The DoorDash NYC office redesign has made a measurable, multifaceted impact on both employees and the company’s workplace strategies. By integrating brain-healthy strategies, the design has supported employee cognitive clarity, focus, and well-being. Functional spaces enable collaborative innovation while also providing areas for rest and recharge, ensuring balance across the workday. The data-driven design approach has led to high occupancy rates across all space types, with ongoing post-occupancy evaluations continuing to refine the success of the workplace. Surveys assessing brain health affordances like rest, reflection, and social connection will further inform adjustments to enhance employee satisfaction and productivity. Linking HKS’ Brain Health research with real-world metrics, DoorDash NYC serves as an exemplar for human-centered, research-informed design in the commercial interiors sector.

Culturally, the design strengthens DoorDash’s commitment to community. The office’s borough-inspired layout and use of locally sourced materials enrich the connection between DoorDash employees and New York City’s unique identity. At the same time, the renovation minimizes environmental waste and extends the life of the historic structure.

This innovative workplace not only reflects DoorDash’s brand mission but also sets a benchmark for sustainability, workplace wellness and design excellence across the company’s global portfolio. The success of the New York City office informed DoorDash’s global offices and, as a result, prioritizing color in experiential branding has become central to their workspace brand. The NYC flagship was honored as a finalist for graphics and branding in the 2025 Best of the Year Awards from Interior Design magazine, commending how vibrancy and story-driven design can create a unique branded experience.