Building Dialogue

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20 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / JUNE 2015
E arlier this spring, I had the opportunity to
spend some time with Shawn Murphy, di-
rector of real estate and fleet for Comcast’s
West Division. As we started our conversation,
I asked, “How important design is to Comcast?”
“This is a timely conversation and design is
very important; however, as an organization,
we have not realized just how important design
plays into our future.”
Shawn Murphy has been in his role for two
years and manages seven markets with 5.8 million
square feet in the portfolio. The product type across
Comcast’s portfolio is varied and includes office,
retail, warehouse, technical operations centers and
operational control hubs.
As Shawn would suggest, design is the fun part
of the business and he has influenced Comcast’s
thinking around how to create new retail spaces,
upgrade call centers and reimage new office envi-
ronments. Typically, Comcast reviews design when
a lease is up for renewal, or when there is a new
office to build.
Before Shawn, Comcast might have continued
with its standard configuration; however, its new
mantra is to “PAUSE” and review before moving for-
ward. For one project in particular, Shawn was able
to push the design beyond the norm. It started in
Palo Alto, California, when Comcast was opening a
new Innovation Center in the epicenter of technol-
ogy firms. “We learned a lot about creating collab-
orative spaces, flexibility in the design and making
sure that plenty of ancillary spaces were included
too. As this location expects to expand, our lesson
learned is to stay with flexible furniture and to cre-
ate new spaces as needed.”
As a stable organization with mature operating
practices in place, Comcast, like many companies,
will see a change in its labor
force over the next five years.
With 30 percent of current
employees as baby boomers
and 0. 07 percent as millen-
nials, the ratio is guaranteed
to flip over the next five years.
Shawn is committed to explor-
ing new ways for Comcast to at-
tract a new generation of work-
ers.
Recently, a location on Dry
Creek Road in Centennial was get-
ting converted to 100 percent oper-
ations. Consequently, Comcast need
to find a new home for 100 people
in its engineering and finance de-
partments. The company’s business
leaders wanted to try downtown
Denver and decided to relocate to 1899
Wynkoop. The trade-off to move to a
more expensive urban location was a
condensed floor plan. The open space
was an adjustment at first,
but the convenient ameni-
ties in LoDo, including the
ball field, restaurants, and
an outdoor balcony for re-
laxation and events, proved
to be worth the change. Sean
reports that Comcast’s em-
ployees “love working in the
central business district” and
could not be happier with their
move to a new “hip,” ameni-
ty-rich environment.
Shawn typically has main-
tained long-term relationships
with architectural services firms,
however, he is finding that some of the smaller
niche design firms have been “fun, creative and un-
derstand the subculture in the local markets.” Fur-
niture has become an important part of creating
flexibility and, as Shawn might say, “flexible furni-
ture creates many types of work spaces.”
Comcast is now settling down on some new retail
design, and getting some standardization in place;
however, the firm is still in “creative mode” for its
office space, call centers and operational centers.
One area of opportunity for Shawn was how to
utilize the large center core of the operations space
that the business likes to use on Wednesdays from
8 to 10 a.m. each week. Shawn has converted the
two-hour-a-week space with flexible furniture
for drop-in spaces for sales reps for the rest of the
week, and even reduced three to four training areas
nearby into an all-hands operations area for great-
er utilization. Overall, Shawn was able to take the
footprint for future operations from 50,000 square
feet to 30,000 square feet across the business. These
Sharon Barrett
Senior Vice
President,
Global
Corporate
Services,
CBRE
End Users
Comcast Innovation Center, Silicon Valley
Shawn Murphy
Comcast Cable,
Director, Real
Estate and Fleet,
West Division