What do you do when the lease is up on your cramped office, plus the furniture is falling apart? If you’re Make-A-Wish Mid-South, you keep pouring every dollar into creating life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses—and go to the experts for a solution to the office-space problem.

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4F Design helped Make-a-Wish more than stretch their dollar, despite a tight price-per-square foot budget. They very intentionally and thoughtfully carved nearly 7,000 square feet of new office space out of existing vacant space in the East Memphis Clark Tower that put million-dollar smiles on all the faces of employees, volunteers, board members and families—everyone who visits the office.

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Make-A-Wish Mid-South’s previous office space was dark and isolated. An inefficient layout meant it couldn’t adequately welcome people or serve its children and families. Today, the renovated space is much more cohesive, designed for efficiency, better team collaboration, volunteer support and the ever-important wish visits. Construction began in late February and was completed in August of last year.

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And with kids continually in their pipeline and projections expecting that number to grow, the new space better supports the nonprofit’s ability to provide increasing numbers of wishes. In 2024, Make-A-Wish Mid-South granted 7,000 wishes to kids across Arkansas, West Tennessee and North Mississippi.

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Despite having to contend with existing walls and columns (a full renovation wasn’t in the budget), 4F Design created a more functional, efficient and cohesive space that visually ties together the Make-a-Wish palette of blue and yellow. Intentional color and logo placements not only strengthen their brand but also convey hope and happiness to those who enter.

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Other design choices that maximized the power of a limited budget included pulling desks off a bank of windows to maximize the natural light. This decision literally makes employees feel lighter and better accommodates the needed creativity and teamwork to boost and improve wishes for kids in the community. The theme continues with the continuous light wood flooring and glass walls surrounding the entrance that allow children to see into the toy closet and families into the wish granting room.

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Interestingly, the new space is roughly the same size but feels bigger, the Make-A-Wish team reports, because it’s designed for them and how they work. This is really a key concept of the project’s success: not simply adapting the design to fit within the space and budget but instead, thoughtfully working with it to create a design that inspires the mission to flourish.

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Adding multipurpose rooms also allows staff to work more efficiently and purposefully. Make-A-Wish has significant volunteer needs and relies heavily on volunteer support. Now, they have a space to host volunteer trainings, wish alum trainings and board meetings, and support remote staff and events. It also gives proud employees a chance to properly host donors and corporate partners.

Most important, the new space can host wish families and make kids feel comfortable during their wish discovery visits. (A lack of cohesive space in the old office meant employees planned their family visits at public places, like coffee shops or the local library.) There’s also a wish closet, where kids can pick a toy. This is not a space adapted to their needs, but rather designed for their mission.

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More than a visit or a meeting, people who now enter the Make-A-Wish Mid-South office are treated to an experience, one that represents joy, hope and connection.