The Children's Place Secaucus, New Jersey, USA The Children's Place is a retailer/producer of children's clothes. Founded in 1969, it now operates 670 stores in North America. Their products target children from newborns to low teens, and the company saw a rapid growth in the 1990s. A new office became necessary that accommodated the enlarged organization, and the company moved to its new headquarters in 1999. The office is a renovated warehouse. The most striking feature is the ‘skylight café’ at the end of the entrance lobby. Drenched in natural light through the skylight, it has an airy and bright atmosphere. The adjacent kitchen offers free coffee and the central location of the café attracts workers. The space is frequently used for informal meetings, even in hours other than mealtime. The workplace for the design and development of the children’s clothes is a large open space, which is organized into a matrix. The five divisions of products, as in big boy, baby boy, big girl, baby girl, and new born, are lined in horizontal rows. Each row has its own operational groups of merchandise, planning, design and production, vertically lined in order. This arrangement not only allows for communication between the designers across different product groups, even between baby boy and big girl, but also enhances creative product development. On the edge of the matrix, there are four private offices for VPs of departments such as marketing. As many as 15 meeting rooms were created, from small meeting spaces to those large enough to double as training rooms. In the back of the office is the distribution center where approximately fifty employees work. A circular window connects the second floor of the office and the distribution center, raising awareness of the bond between the two.           Location: Secaucus, New Jersey, USA     Move-In Date: 1999.8     Floor Area: 50,000 ft2 (approx. 4,600 m2)     Workforce: 350     Architecture Design: N/A     Interior Design: DEGW     Interview Date: 2003.6