Here’s the plan Offices reconfigure space in post-pandemic world
The future of the office is different from the one we left behind. Where open layout once ruled, distance and separation are now trending in light of coronavirus concerns.
Rethinking office space
For Megan Lanzetta, CEO of Standard Commercial Interiors, her office on Champlain Street in Albany is also a showroom. And although clients aren’t visiting now, the design staff used their space to test out new ways offices can be set up.
Co-workers who once sat next to each other divided by a waist-height wall are now farther apart and each desk has a glass partition added to the existing wall to raise the barrier to 6 feet or higher. Coronavirus didn’t kill the standing desk. Higher partitions between co-workers allow for people to stand or sit at their desks.
The addition of glass, rather than a solid wall, preserves the culture of open layout because office mates can still see each other.
“We’re highlighting personal space while encouraging collaboration. This is not a return to the cube farm,” said Allison Ryan, senior designer at SCI.
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