Inside the agency: R/GA

Spread out across four buildings, with more than 750 employees, R/GA’s Hell’s Kitchen interior “winks” at Bauhaus architecture, a personal inspiration for Greenberg. Its other buildings around the world, in Europe, South America, and Asia, are modeled after the Manhattan office.

A view of the main workroom at 350 39th street, and a view of the Digital Studio workroom in a different building across the street.

Greenberg’s office is itself full of oddities: an old Singer sewing machine, outsider art, an Apple 2 computer and more.

(Above left: Greenberg explains how a non-motorized Singer sewing machine works. Above right: Greenberg shows a pamphlet from R/GA’s days as a production company.)

R/GA’s campus has a retail lab in building, where it produces different interactive displays, and a prototype studio in another, where the company creates design mock-ups.

(Above left: A 3-D printer in the prototype studio. Above right: A work section at the retail lab.)

“I had to fight a lot to get our conference center on the second floor with these little huddle rooms,” he told Digiday. “They’re meant to hold two people — they’re like the size of a telephone booth.” Huddle rooms are often used for brainstorming in small groups and interviews. Hanging on the wall outside of the huddle rooms is Greenberg’s collection of articulated dolls.

(Above right: The hanging articulated dolls. Above left: The juice bar.)

“We built an internal studio — one that would use no film,” he said of R/GA’s early days. “At the time, we were doing it, most commercials were still using film. Now, film is mostly dead, except for commercial companies. So we went digital with our studio.”

(Above right: R/GA’s courtyard covered in snow. Above left: The filming room of R/GA’s digital production studio.)

“We’re the furthest along as an integrated agency,” Greenberg said. “I wonder why more companies don’t do that, but I think the DNA of many agencies is to be fiercely competitive, even within the agency.”