It could revolutionize the office next COVID-19 has transformed work
Over the last decade, there’s been a marked shift in many office environments in many metro area across the country. Some companies based in spacious suburban offices with ample parking spaces moved to smaller and more expensive locations in downtown business districts. These moves often came with new commutes for employees and packed parking garages, but these sacrifices were mostly considered justifiable because of urban walkability and proximity to new and trendy restaurants and bars that catered to the working professional crowd.
Inside, the offices generally had open environments where coworkers sat close together. Designer kitchens were stocked with snacks and areas for colleagues to mingle.
The coronavirus may be changing that.
Temporary changes have already begun, or will soon, from installing dividers between desks, restricting access to kitchens and other common areas and putting up signage about maskwearing, hand-washing and maintaining social distancing.
But some longer-term changes have already started, commercial real estate firms say, whether it’s leasing more space to accommodate for social distancing or companies considering leasing spaces in the suburbs if their employees don’t feel safe in the city.
Commercial real estate and architecture firms say it’s still early on in the pandemic and attitudes may change after there’s a vaccine, but they say COVID-19 is accelerating trends that were already in motion.
“Nothing is going away, but a lot is changing,” said Lisa Sauve, CEO of Synecdoche Design Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, an architecture firm that designs workspaces, among other spaces.
Rethinking the office experience
Sauve started thinking about how the office needs to morph in order to be safe for employees after talking with the co-working space Bamboo Detroit. CEO Amanda Lewan was brainstorming ways to reconfigure the space, and Sauve came up with the idea for a partition that would physically separate work stations, called workwall.
That’s not the only change at Bamboo Detroit. Lewan is requiring anyone who enters the building to do a health screening and wear a mask. Tenants arrive at staggered times, so as to not crowd the stairwell. Signs about maintaining distance and best cleaning practices are posted throughout the space. Common areas and the kitchen are closed, and the frequency of cleanings by managers in the space has increased.
“We’re rethinking the whole co-working experience,” said Lewan.
Lewan sees the demand for co-working growing, if current trends take hold, and more employees are working from home on a daily basis.
“Work is going to have to be flexible because most people realize working at home is working for them,” she said. “Most corporations have seen that people can work from home. But it’s hard to collaborate virtually.”
Co-working spaces could become a place for these types of workers to get out of the house for a few days a week, she said. Or larger companies may use co-working spaces as satellite offices for employees who don’t live near headquarters, Lewan said.
Workwalls can also be used as whiteboards, and can be moved easily to coffee or meeting tables as a place to write when brainstorming.
Bob Kraemer, principal of Kraemer Design Group, an architecture and design firm in Detroit, agrees that the move away from open offices has started.
He said before 2009, the standard space per employee was about 225 square feet. Then there was a push to reduce that amount, bringing the average down to 150 square feet per person, often accomplished by having employees sit at long tables right next to each other.
Kraemer expects to see partitions that can be easily moved, laptops for every employee so they can quickly transition to working from home and more touchless features, whether it’s a bathroom door that opens automatically or lighting that turns on when a person enters the room.
MOST CORPORATIONS HAVE SEEN THAT PEOPLE CAN WORK FROM HOME. BUT IT’S HARD TO COLLABORATE VIRTUALLY.
AMANDA LEWAN
CEO OF BAMBOO DETROIT