We're happy to announce that Ferris & Co. has added an extremely powerful force to our design team. Barker / Nestor, one of Chicago's premier hospitality architects, has come on board to help us achieve our vision of building the greatest possible workplace for founders. They aren't just designing our hospitality spaces — they're moving in.
About Barker / Nestor
Ryan Nestor is one of the great restaurant architects in America. I know this firsthand — I used to work for him and got to observe him and the team in close quarters. His team is elite but not elitist. In their 1,000+ project portfolio, you'll find Michelin-starred restaurants and Red Lobsters. They bring the same high standard of care and wealth of experience to every project.
While working for him, Ryan taught me two things that changed the way I think about hospitality and my own work process. The first is that sharing a meal together is primal. It's thought that sitting across from one another goes back to our species' earliest days, when eating made you vulnerable to predators — so each person could watch the other's back. Eating together is foundational to the very idea of society.
The second thing Ryan taught me was to manage expectations. Commit to delivering your work, and if you can see ahead of time that you're going to come up short, reset that expectation. At Ferris & Co., we have very high expectations for the value hospitality brings to our community.
Why Ferris & Co.
We are designing Ferris & Co. around the premise that growth is an outcome of alternating periods of stress and recovery. Stress happens at your desk, when you are locked in. Recovery happens when you step away from your desk. At Ferris & Co., the recovery spaces that Barker / Nestor are helping design are:
- Food Program: The dining room and the kitchen that support it — eating healthy food on-site, made easy.
- Lounge: A relaxing space set aside for conversation, distraction, welcoming guests, and building warm relationships.
- Event Space: A room of requirement, capable of hosting a meet-up, hackathon, conference, company offsite, or tai chi class.
- Brain Gym: A room set aside for growth and learning, ever more critical as AI takes over more of our knowledge work.
- Speakeasy: A high-class game room for relaxation and deepening relationships.
We are extremely grateful to have Ryan and his team on board. Having them on-site will allow us time to build, test, and optimize. I look forward to sharing the design, construction, and optimization story for each of these spaces with you.
David Dewane
Executive Director
Ferris & Co.