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... to mix office space with residential and retail in our upcoming Park Monroe Building,” he says. Putting the offices and other space on lower floors makes use of the space while saving room at the top for condos.

Gordon adds that office tenants are also setting up their spaces with more central open area, flanked by abutting offices with glass walls to help let in light.

It’s a trend that Hunzinger also has noticed. “Opening up views to exterior walls and using daylighting has become much more common,” he says.

HOK’s Polucci adds that many clients now supplement daylighting with energy-efficient, sensor-controlled artificial lights that dim to cut electric usage when daylight is bright in the office space.

Both of the architects we interviewed say they see a solid trend toward using more open, flexible space in office layouts, as well as more use of smaller, informal collaboration areas rather than large conference rooms.

“Companies are moving to an open work environment,” Polucci says. “They’re creating more small ‘huddle’ conference rooms for quick meetings of two to four people. And they’re creating different types of meeting space by putting casual lounge furniture in open spaces near work stations.”

He says the change is made possible because wireless communication and laptop computers enable workers to work where they want and to collaborate more easily.

Perkins+Will’s Schmidt adds that the ability to work remotely has affected workspace design by enabling some types of employees such as salespeople, consultants and auditors to work remotely or spend more time in the field with clients. “A company might not need a cubicle for every employee,” Schmidt says. “We’re seeing more clients with ‘touchdown’ work spaces shared by a few employees who spend most of their time working away from the office.”

Not only are there often fewer individual work stations, but each station often is smaller and has a straight counter rather than the traditional L-shaped ones, Schmidt says. He calls this design “benching” and explains that it began in Europe some years ago but is now becoming more popular in the U.S. Not only is the cubicle desk shrinking, so is the space allotted for storing paper documents, since most data is now stored electronically.

Offices More Strongly Show Company Culture and Brand “Companies are creating positive working spaces that reflect their cultures and brands,” says HOK’s Polucci. For example, a company whose culture is open and collaborative will have spaces that make it easy to collaborate. That helps employees function more effectively and also helps them feel more a part of the company, he says.

“Branding encompasses the unspoken promises a company makes,” Schmidt says. The kind of space a company builds depends on the message the company wants to send to its employees and visitors, he adds.

“Law firms might use marble and wooden millwork to show stability, whereas a company that provides health services may use sustainable materials.” Schmidt says.

Polucci adds, “One pharmaceutical company that has a red signature color chose to use warm reddish tones in its office. It also scaled its office spaces and furniture to make its offices feel inviting, secure and comfortable like a home.”

Schmidt and Polucci say that companies branding office space is not new, but they are seeing more widespread emphasis on it now than they have in the past.

Slow Market; Glimmers of Hope One trend that will surprise no one is that current activity in the office building sector is slow overall.

“Lack of financing is making it difficult to get projects done,” Gordon says. “Equity requirements are often 50%. There are people on the sidelines with money to invest. They just aren’t comfortable with the economy yet.”

Polucci says, “The first quarter of 2010 has been better than the recent past. We’re optimistic that the economy is turning.”

And McCarthy’s Freeman says: “Commercial and retail space is still suffering from the down economy. But we recently have seen increased requests for proposals, particularly for medical office buildings. We hope that the increase indicates that other sectors will follow later this year.”

 

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