CREJ - Office Properties Quarterly - July 2015
It’s likely that your home kitchen is located somewhere near the back or middle of the ground floor. Whether it’s a tiny, crowded galley style or a sprawling restaurant-grade area with sparkling equipment and furnishings, the kitchen usually finds itself hidden from the main entrance to the house. The same generally is true for office kitchens. That’s because kitchens and break areas are, at their core, utilitarian. That’s subjective, of course, given the state of flux in today’s office with open plans continuously pushing the design envelope. But in a practical sense, when food, beverages and people share the same space for any significant length of time, there will be things left behind that typically cannot be tolerated in the parts of the office where serious business is done. On the other hand, kitchens and break areas are being reshaped and recast as quickly as the offices in which they’re located. In essence, that means rules are rewritten on the fly, if they’re written at all. It’s not that the concept of larger, multipurpose break areas is a new idea. It’s that open-minded companies and their architects are finding double and triple duty for those spaces while shattering traditional boundaries in design and real estate. Consider the home kitchen. Even those of modest size often are the heart of the home, the primary family gathering place for meals, meetings and all types of daily, ad hoc activities. The office kitchen and break areas are taking on that same identity with some interesting twists. One striking trend is the fishbowl break area. Located at the front of the suite and usually enclosed by at least one glass wall, this option can vary in size and level of finish, but is visible from tenant common areas or even the building lobby. Some are designed to be a hybrid reception area without a receptionist. Visitors quite literally step into the break area at the front of the suite and are greeted by whomever happens to be eating, standing, working – or walking by. That may seem both ill planned and unprofessional, and it probably is by traditional standards. But the open-plan culture in its evolving form is anything but traditional. That is, employees who embrace a specific type of work culture will request that it spill over into their break spaces. Glass walls and natural light are perks, even if that means greeting guests and being eyeballed by passersby. From an employer’s point of view, keeping staff in the office for an entire workday is a victory in and of itself. During break times – which essentially are all day – a 60-square-foot galleystyle walk-through isn’t going to cut it. But an 800-sf break space with sofas, bench seating, stand-up cocktail tables, flat screens, healthy food choices and prep areas, and an endless selection of coffee and tea, probably will do the trick. While this new generation of break areas might not be appointed so generously, many do offer more than enough to allow employees to stay put without feeling the pinch of a lunch hour. And keeping them in the office and productive can offset the high cost of furniture and equipment and even the higher cost of real estate. Design styles for these spaces run the gamut. Open ceilings, concrete floors and bright colors appeal to a wide element, but not all. There is no prototypical model. A Los Angeles Times article last year featured a major downtown law firm that fused a break area with a library, dubbing it the “loungebrary.” Clever. And extremely effective, according to its attorneys. Obviously, a professional services firm does not fit the mold of the open plenum and foosball table culture. But an upscale kitchen and break space fulfills the same need for a multipurpose gathering area that appeals to employees, managers and guests. The common thread here, of course, is the millennial. We all know who they are and how their share of the American employment base is affecting interior design and the real estate that supports it. Millennials profoundly shape recruitment and retention tactics and, by extension, facilities. Although they are not cut from exactly the same cloth, millennials do share the need for workspaces that emphasize mobility, flexibility and collaboration. Break areas that blur the line between work and leisure will continue to be sought after as a must-have for most millennials. There certainly are questions to consider, such as how to keep a large, wide-open break area perpetually clean, and who’s responsible for that? Also, there are potential concerns regarding food odors and noise abatement. And how about a landlord who isn’t crazy about the look of the fishbowl now that it’s been showcased off the building lobby? These are but a handful of valid and documented concerns. But if business owners and their managers are backing off the emerging concept of the punched-up break space, they certainly aren’t saying so. Neither are their employees.