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July 2017 — Property Management Quarterly — Page 21
Design Trends
T here are many new and
exciting trends happening
in workplace design, from
unique breakout workspaces
to the ability to move office
walls around within hours. In the
ever-changing workplace, employ-
ees and employers want versatility.
People want a variety of spaces to
work within throughout the day
and flexibility within those spaces.
Following are some of the top
workplace design trends property
managers should consider when
designing common areas, working
with new tenants and building out
unleased office space.
• Varied seating. Providing a variety
of seating options allows people
to move throughout the space to
perform different tasks in areas
that are conducive for them. This
includes integrating tables for
standing and sitting, lounge furni-
ture mixed with task furniture, and
height-adjustable desks. Offering
this flexibility to employees and
tenants allows them to work freely
throughout a space and create vari-
ety from the day-to-day grind.
• Breakout meeting spaces. In any
field, impromptu meetings hap-
pen on a daily basis, but in an open
work environment these can be
disruptive and distracting for other
employees. Creating dedicated
spaces for these meetings of the
mind helps boost creativity and
productivity. Providing amenities
like flexible furniture, white boards,
technology and lounge furniture
gives incentive for employees to
actually leave their workspace and
use the meeting spaces.
• Phone booths. Nothing makes it
harder to focus on
the task at hand
than when your
neighbor is car-
rying on a phone
call. Inevitably
your thoughts
begin to drift to
their conversation,
pulling you away
from your work.
Creating noise-
reducing phone
booths or private
areas provide an
oasis for carrying
out conference calls, telecommut-
ing or cranking out items under
extreme deadlines.
• Versatility. In today’s fast-paced
world, your tenants may doubled in
size overnight or may restructure
in a blink of an eye, which creates
new opportunities for office lay-
outs. Keeping the furniture (and,
yes, even the walls) flexible helps
meet a company’s every need. This
versatility helps tenants expand
and contract offices and conference
rooms as well as shift open-office
layouts to accommodate changing
needs, all while productivity is at
the forefront.
There are several office wall sys-
tems currently on the market that
provide the ability for a property
manager or a building tenant to
move walls, increasing or decreas-
ing the size of office space based
on the needs of the specific com-
pany. This is being used a lot in co-
working spaces. The systems allow
property managers the ease and
flexibility to move around walls,
telecom and data cables within
hours, which saves time and money
in man hours.
• Collaboration. Collaboration is
the new work model. Whether this
includes a long community table for
people of different departments and
companies to work side by side or a
co-working space that fosters com-
munity, collaboration is becoming
a vital component of the modern
work world. The community cre-
ates a feeling of connectedness in
today’s technology-driven world by
allowing people to get back to the
basics of networking, developing
relationships and feeling like part of
a collective whole.
The large corner office is a thing
of the past and today’s workforce
requires touch-down spaces in
order to quickly connect on the go.
By including varied seating, break-
out meeting spaces, versatility and
collaboration spaces within your
commercial office workplace, prop-
erty mangers can easily move and
change spaces to fit the end user’s
needs. These spaces provide the
building the flexibility to change the
office layout for the growth or down
size of the tenants that occupy that
space.s
Kristen
Terjesen, NCIDQ
Principal designer,
Studio 10 Interior
Design, Denver
Studio 10 Interior Design
New office wall systems allow a property manager or a building tenant to move walls,
increasing or decreasing the size of office space based on the needs of the specific company.