Thinking About Your Future Office Space? By Charles A. Houy

Since 2008 firms with expiring leases have continued to “trade up” to improved spaces/buildings while keeping their financial lease obligations below, at, or near their prior lease costs. Lease costs in most New England markets remain below 2007 levels, and plenty of opportunities still abound. Some clients have asked what changes we are seeing in these recent times, when many factors are at play, including:
a. The economy has remained weak, and budgets are quite limited
b. Companies want to retain their most valuable staff, to be ready for the economic upturn
c. Companies are seeking to lower their leasehold operating costs, including utilities costs
d. Potential employees and companies are appreciative of greener solutions in built environments, whether LEED or more sustainable is the benchmark.
e. Today’s employment pool consists of several fairly distinct layers, including boomers, Gen-Xers, and Milleniums.
Our recent clients and their design teams have made noticeable changes in the clients’ interior architectures, and we expect these trends to continue for many years.
· There is a visible increase in the use of natural light, and more “openness” within building shells. The recognition that people, like plants, thrive on natural light, is shattering many of the former barriers to natural light within spaces. Hard, impenetrable drywall walls are giving way to glass walls, or lowered walls (partial height walls), or no walls at all. In many instances this change has lowered the cost of construction; fewer full height walls saves money in drywall, HVAC, lighting, and fire-safety costs primarily, but additional savings can be wrung from less costly ceiling and carpet work. Lower furniture panels save FF&E costs as well; some of our clients are eliminating furniture panels entirely, and using storage walls and banks of files as substitutes to achieve visual privacy for workers that formerly sat in high-walled cubicles.
· There is more emphasis on encouraging employees to collaborate, and not just to focus on their individual contribution efforts. This business strategy is really focused on obtaining greater employee productivity and fostering process/product/service changes which will give the company greater competitive advantages in the near and distant futures. To foster collaboration, as mentioned earlier, walls are coming down or becoming glass; informal meeting areas are being designed into floorplans, often with overstuffed chairs, couches, beanbags, ping-pong tables, etc.; semi-private “huddle rooms” are included in floorplans to accommodate two to four people who can collaborate away from the open environment to brainstorm or make focused progress. People who had been in closed offices are now provided with open offices and nearby access to huddle and conference rooms, and informal meeting areas. Kitchen eating areas are morphing into “cafés.” With more inviting collaborative seating, some cafés now double as the location for all-hands meetings.
· Whereas past offices have sometimes had that “vast wasteland” look of orderly rows of cubicles under acres of low acoustical drop ceilings with uniformly bright white lighting, architects and engineers are now being asked by many clients to break up that look and give them a facility which is more visually interesting and even exciting. For example, Google’s facilities are known for their open ceiling areas combined with “cloud-covered” areas of conventional acoustic drop ceilings and brightly painted accent walls. Lighting choices today, especially with the newer LED light sources, allow architects and lighting consultants to vary the light levels across a floor while still providing appropriate work lighting for the occupants. These differences can also reduce construction costs, as savings can be found by not installing acoustical drop ceilings everywhere, by lowering the number of light fixtures needed, and by providing more efficient lighting and HVAC.
· There is a return to what architects often call an “honest” look in flooring, such as when a concrete slab floor is polished or stained in another color rather than covered with carpet or floor tiles. Most clients are leaving concrete bare in some/small portions of the facility, but you may have noticed retail stores which have recently employed this throughout. The honesty of the concrete flooring is often matched with open ceilings overhead. .
· One last note about flooring: there is a gradual increase in the use of carpet tiles rather than broadloom. No longer a static monolithic only option, carpet tiles come in an array of patterns affording more complex and stimulating views within a facility, which people today appreciate. Carpet tiles are also selectively replaceable when one is soiled, providing major operating savings compared with replacing larger sections of broadloom. Carpet tiles were also early to market with recycled and/or “green” fibers and components.
· The broad spectrum of employees and potential employees available today is different from your father and mother’s employment and management experiences. Today’s generations are indeed different in motivators, placement of “work” on their Importance spectrum, abilities to multi-task, and separation or integration of business with personal concerns. Rather than separating the generations with walls, more and more employers are finding that integrating the generations into a more collaborative workplace is leading to higher productivity for the individuals and firm.
In summary, yesterday’s office architecture is less indicative of tomorrow’s than one might think. It is key that firms consider carefully how they view their facility, and engage their own staff as well as professionals such as architects and project managers to help develop this new vision. For many firms, facilities costs are second only to staffing costs, and keeping both up to date is this fast paced society is a must in order to retain top talent and efficiently manage their capital investments.
Charles A. Houy is a principal at Dowling Houy LlLC.