CREJ - Office Properties Quarterly - October 2015
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives,” said author Annie Dillar. The trend toward workplace collaboration, transparency and informality that accompanies the new generation of office workers largely eliminated the once ubiquitous private offices ringing the edges of hermetically sealed commercial office buildings. This old news is well documented. But, here in Colorado, at the confluence of several simultaneous cultural shifts, namely mobile technology, we are seeing the integration of the resort lifestyle and an emphasis on wellness everywhere we live, work and play. This has made a huge impact in the design of the office building envelope becoming more transparent, permeable and, sometimes, disappearing completely. From floor-to-ceiling vision glass to operable facades giving way to natural ventilation, terraces and balconies, savvy designers and developers are giving Colorado office occupants more visual and physical access to the outside world. Need. “Rediscovering the intuitively obvious” is what Terrapin Bright Green calls this renewed awareness of our innate need for nature. In the company’s white paper, “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design,” Terrapin articulates this human-nature relationship and related opportunities for designers and developers. This rediscovery of our need for outdoor environments is influencing nearly every project sector in Colorado. Most of our local multifamily residential projects incorporate a rich assortment of resort-style outdoor environments. As Colorado’s higher education institutions evolve, outdoor amenity offerings at residence halls are rivaling those of the hospitality industry. And thankfully in our workplaces, where we collectively spend most of our days, we are demanding to be let out! Demand. “Nearly all of my prospective Denver office tenants are focused on what kind and how much outdoor space is available; of secondary concern seems to be what their interior office is like,” said Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Executive Managing Director Tim Harrington. While these outdoor spaces seem more important to companies with collaborative workforces like those in the technology, design and global business sectors, Harrington is seeing the trend infiltrate even the most traditional banking and law firms. For example, Denver law firm Moye White LLP is replacing some windows with a series of automated roll-up doors, allowing employees direct access to an expansive sixth-floor terrace. Randy Nichols, president and CEO of The Nichols Partnership and developer of Boulder’s PearlWest office and retail project, also observes this same demand among a diverse group of tenants. Both traditional capital investment firms and creative tech companies have scrambled to lease space in PearlWest, which features an extensive rooftop terrace with views of the Flatirons and multiple balconies on each floor. Hines Director Gordon Stoffer said that providing outdoor terraces at their newest office projects is a great amenity and selling point as they are “hugely helpful in distinguishing our projects from the competition.” Value. In the past, exterior spaces might have been designed but never realized due to concerns about cost, complicated detailing, water infiltration, etc. Now that office users are demanding outdoor spaces, how are developers justifying the cost? Zeppelin Development provides functional interiors unburdened by trendy finishes, leaving more room in the pro forma for the inclusion of operable walls and outdoor amenities, said Kyle Zeppelin, a principal at Zeppelin Development. At Freight, the adaptive reuse of an industrial building, Zeppelin priced both a standard storefront and glazed garage doors during design; the garage doors priced better. Nichols also embraced the raw architecture of exposed concrete floors and ceiling utilities in Galvanize and the Nichols Building project. But he doesn’t find cost savings in that design approach, noting that a well-organized ceiling of round ducts, conduit, lighting and sprinkler piping, along with finished and sealed concrete floors, are as expensive as covering the messier versions of these functional elements with finishes. Instead, Nichols said the elimination of a formal office lobby and tangible marketing advantages are his methods of moving money toward outdoor amenities.