Candice Wagener
Classic diner-style furniture and Coca-Cola art distinguish the “Route 66” breakroom, which also has a good-sized kitchen prep area.
Oakwood Village has been serving the senior community for the past 67 years. Its University Woods campus employs close to 400 part-time and full-time workers: dining and maintenance staff, nurses, other caregivers. Those employees were making do with some seriously outdated spaces for their break time until last summer, when an internally run design contest inspired creativity among the staff to give these areas a much-needed facelift.
Michelle Godfrey, vice president of operational support, says it was fun to get everyone involved in the project “and give something back to staff, an enhancement to their space on the campus.”
While professional staff have more flexibility to cross the 30-acre campus to lunch together, line staff usually end up going to breaks in very tight pockets of time. They tend to end up in their breakrooms together, Godfrey says.
Staffers were encouraged to work individually or in teams to put together as detailed a proposal as possible, including everything from the entertainment and vending options to the color scheme and even sketches for furniture and ideas about artwork.
Twelve proposals were submitted for four breakrooms, none of them like your typical coffee and vending machine cubby. The winners are all thoughtful creations, yet very different from each other.The remodeling was funded by a $20,000 grant from the Oakwood Foundation as well as a donation of $5,000 from an enthusiastic Oakwood resident.
One breakroom has been transformed into a Prairie style-inspired space called the Frank Lloyd Wright Cottage, with clean lines, natural elements and a Wrightian wall hanging.
Another is a serenity-themed room with a couch and recliners, blinds on the windows and walls painted a calming, muted lilac. Originally, this space was painted such a garish color it had devolved into more of a storeroom.
A third breakroom, where staff wanted something more vibrant and fun, has been converted to look like a 1950s diner, complete with black-and-white check floors, red walls, retro furniture including bar stools and a counter and fun art displays of the Route 66 sign and Coca-Cola logo.
The final breakroom, with its remodel now nearing completion, will have a Northwoods lodge feel to it, with hunting and fishing elements as part of the overall theme.
Godfrey says she has noticed a change in how many people are sitting in the breakrooms. “Now the breakroom can be utilized, as opposed to ‘I have eight minutes to kill, where am I going to to go?’”
Dave Bertsch, Oakwood’s director of facilities and property management, worked closely with the winning candidates to sharpen their ideas. The Route 66 room started as a general diner concept until Bertsch helped with decisions on artwork, flooring and paint colors.
Tracy Weishan, an art therapist at Oakwood who was behind the “Wright Room,” says that a $50 Visa gift card prize was a good incentive for entering the contest, but she also wanted to create a peaceful place for employees to catch some downtime.
“I thought about a place where I would like to take a break,” says Weishan. The Wright Room was inspired by the architect’s strong and simple design concepts and love of natural and organic elements. “What do people want in a break area?” asks Weishan. “To me, the things that come to mind are nature and relaxation.”
