Zurich North America and CNA have at least one thing in common: Within the last few years, they shed their old, outdated headquarters and redesigned completely new spaces from the ground up.

They rethought everything from common workspaces to conference rooms and how they wanted their employees to work, brainstorm, collaborate and relax in their headquarters’ space.

The executives and designers involved in both projects describe the end result as a huge improvement, amounting to the difference between night and day.

“The former headquarters was a bit dark, dated and impractical,” recalled Dennis Kerrigan, Zurich North America’s chief legal officer, who was a key person involved in the insurer’s design strategy for the new space. “The new headquarters is open, bright and incredibly functional.”