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 FRIDAY APRIL 2, 2021

The Upfront

Partnering with the right table can make all the difference

SOMETIMES (almost always), the contract furnishings industry takes itself too seriously. Like way too seriously. So it was refreshing to see that outsiders can make fun of our products and pull-off a pretty good April Fools joke at the same time. A tip of the hat to JotForm.

At JotForm, we’re all about ways to boost your productivity. Which is why we’ve taken a step back from online forms to focus on our newest product, The Table by JotForm: a state-of-the-art table with plenty of powerful features to meet your every need.

HFPI raises prices to cope with wood prices, foam shortage

Casegoods and office furniture maker High Point Furniture Industries (HFPI) said this week that they will increase the prices of all of their products by 6 percent beginning May 1.

"As our economy recovers, we are faced with several other unexpected challenges in our supply chain," the company wrote in a letter to its customers. "The worldwide demand has increased exponentially for many raw materials affecting most wood and steel products. Weather events have also created serious shortages in petroleum-based products."

"Steel costs have risen 25 percent, wood products are up 12-15 percent, foam has increased 40 percent, and if that's not enough, transportation costs are up over 25 percent," the letter reads.

"We are doing everything we can at HPFi to control costs and mange resources efficiently. Most importantly, we are firmly committed to delivering the same level of high quality, well priced product that you have come to rely on."

The shortage comes at an unfortunate time for HFPI and other furniture makers - many of whom have been seeing a sharp increase in demand. Residential furniture orders saw a 27 percent rise in December 2020 from the same month in 2019, and a 15 percent increase for entire year of 2020 over 2019.

The shortage began early March.

The two chemicals used in foam production are primarily produced at plants in Texas and Louisiana. Many of these facilities were forced offline by the deep freeze that slammed the region late February.

It has forced cutbacks for many furniture makers, including Craftmaster, Century Furniture, and Mississipp-based Affordable Furniture. Wesley Hall opted to shut down production for a week. Wesley believes the shortage will ease in three weeks.

The challenge of distributed work, according to Vitra

It is a curious paradox, but also a farsighted strategic repositioning, that one of Europe’s largest office furniture companies to rethink the future of working life at home. But it is precisely in the light of this short-circuit, and quite apart from all the guidelines on optimal teleworking that now seem all too debated and taken for granted, that the Vitra Sessions’ new digital format, inaugurated by the Weil am Rhein-based company after the launch of the Vitra Summit in October 2020, appears most intriguing after all.

With “Distributed Work”, the theme of this new video conference moves away from the previous philosophical discussions on living at the Vitra Summit to look at the pragmatic lesson inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic in a totally unexpected way. Through the story of Nora Fehlbaum, CEO of Vitra, flanked by experts and protagonists from the design world, Vitra shares with its followers the experience of a confinement year, confiding not only its initial scepticism about the productivity of telework, but opening up to a broader discussion on how hybrid work is redefining the sense of belonging to the corporate culture, modifying its cohesion and identity.

Having become “the new normal”, the distributed work – carried out both in the office and at home, according to a subjective balance for each company that is still to be stabilised – poses fascinating challenges that go well beyond the need to develop the vertical attitude to supervision into a trust-oriented culture and an individual search for results. The challenge, which in the end is less obvious, seems to revolve around the possibility of recreating an informal interaction among people who work together even when, as Mikael Krogerus & Roman Tschäppeler, authors of “The Decision Book” (2011), tell us the unpredictable sparks of exchange and complicity due to physical presence disappear. How can we recreate an open and spontaneous interaction, in the corridor or around the coffee machine, when a virtual interface stiffens poses and connection times? And how can decision-making processes be oriented when the same interface cancels out dead time, unforeseen deviations from the script and random inputs arising from a case that cannot be predicted?

MC Office Furniture Partners with Office Furniture Heaven

Office Furniture Heaven (OFH) a leading New York City office furniture dealership, announces a strategic partnership with MC Office Furniture. The addition of MC Office Furniture will expand the market reach of OFH. OFH focuses on providing high level, personalized attention to small and medium size businesses with fewer than 250 employees.

Barry Handwerger, President of MC Office Furniture, says of the partnership “I could not be more excited about our collaboration. I have been in the industry for over 25 years, I have built MC Office Furniture and enjoyed fostering its growth. OFH is expanding and our companies are synergistic. As I move on to the next stage of my career, I am confident that Marc Schwartzberg and his team will continue our commitment and passion to servicing clients to the next level.”

“Barry has a wonderful reputation in our industry” says OFH CEO, Marc Schwartzberg. “What has impressed me is his commitment to exceeding client expectations, no matter the size of the company. I’m eager to build on the outstanding foundation of excellence Barry and his team have provided to their clients over the years.” Marc also stated “At OFH, our creative design team and experienced operations department has expanded our capacity to a level I never would have dreamed of years ago. Bringing our two companies together strengthens OFH in these interesting times.”

Live selling is the next big thing. Can it work for home?

C-suite executives are rarely called on to tend the register at the company store, but last Tuesday, Humanscale CMO Leena Jain did just that—or, at least, a 21st-century version of it. At 2 p.m. she got into hair and makeup, stepped in front of a camera and proceeded to deliver a live YouTube pitch for how the brand’s ergonomically designed office furniture could fit neatly into a work-from-home setup.

Moving around an immaculately clean apartment set, Jain and a colleague demonstrated Humanscale’s chairs, adjustable desks and laptop stands, periodically taking audience questions about functionality and color options (“The sky’s the limit with the World chair,” said Jain, gamely). Toward the end of the broadcast, she held up a piece of paper with a discount code for all the products the audience had seen.

The stream, a first for New York–based brand Humanscale, was a toe-dip into the waters of a brave new world of digitally enabled live selling (sometimes called “e-commerce livestreaming” or simply “livestreaming”), a buzzy concept that many analysts are predicting will be the next big thing in online commerce.

“We started talking about doing this six weeks ago,” Jain tells Business of Home. “And even in those six weeks we’ve seen more and more of it. My friend has a sustainable beauty company; she’s doing it. We saw one from Tumi. I said to my team, I absolutely want to be the first in our industry to do this.“”

Three Steps To Achieving The New Generation Of Office Space

Never before in modern history has the business community, and more specifically commercial real estate, experienced such profound and dramatic change. The marketplace faced a long and arduous year with unexpected demands on resources and personnel. It was more than transitional; it has been transformative, educational and an eye-opening experience for us all. 

What Have We Learned?

Over the past year, we witnessed a fundamental change in the role of office. As we quickly transitioned to virtual and digital workspaces, we saw leadership change their perspective on remote working and physical space. Business leaders have also shared concerns over workplace purpose and rightsizing their future office requirements, yet they have been awed and inspired by the complexity of the single question: “What is the future of work?”

Now that we have untethered from our in-office cubicles, desks and paperwork there will be no turning back to the old ways of working. Remote work is here to stay, and recent data implies that it will only continue to accelerate. According to Upwork’s “Future of the Workforce Pulse Report,”one in four Americans (26.7 percent of the workforce) will be working remotely in 2021 and 36.2 million Americans will be fully remote by 2025—16.8 million more people compared to pre-pandemic rates.

Through this disruption, organizations are boldly questioning conventional business norms and expressing concerns about the shift from dedicated, individual spaces to more agile, shared workspaces. Key questions business owners are asking include:

• What is the best office size and configuration?

• What are the long-term, post pandemic implications on real estate decisions made today?

• How do we establish organizational culture and maintain employee engagement in a blended/hybrid workspace?

• What technologies will be needed immediately to successfully transition and support the physical office of the future?

Digital Business Transformation Becomes Catalyst for Remote Work

The pandemic and its overriding demand for safety and wellness, drove an overnight transition to remote work and the sudden implementation of tools that existed but were often underutilized. We now have a broad, experienced and digital savvy workforce with the right tools to make remote work successful. So, what’s next for the office and how do organizations apply what we have learned from this past year? Enter the New Generation Space.

Here Come Hot Desks and Zoom Rooms. And Holograms?

Since the pandemic sent workers home last year, a slew of modifications have been made to office buildings to protect against the spread of the coronavirus. Now, as companies prepare to bring workers back, experts say even more changes are on the way.

Expect expanded gathering spaces and fewer personal workstations, for instance, changes that are being fueled by the success of working from home. Companies like Google, Microsoftand Walmart have already announced proposals for hybrid work models that will allow employees to continue to work remotely at least a few days a week.

These new arrangements mean companies may need less office space, and some have already cut back on their real estate needs, according to a survey from the consulting firm PwC. Target said this month that it was giving up office space in downtown Minneapolis, and in September, the sporting goods retailer REI sold its newly built headquarters in Bellevue, Wash.

“We really are at an inflection point,” said Meena Krenek, an interior design director at Perkins+Will, an architecture firm that is revamping offices, including its own, for new modes of working.

Moving the Workplace Outdoors

The physical and psychological benefits of the outdoors and its relation to the workplace and academia were the subject of a recent Think Tank webinar, Designing for Work Outdoors, hosted by the Atlanta office of Perkins&Will. The session was moderated by Metropolis’s editor in chief Avinash Rajagopal.

“There is an increased value of outdoor space as a result of the pandemic,” said Zan Stewart, associate principal landscape architecture, Perkins&Will. “Central Park in New York and the grand boulevards of Paris both emerged from pandemics. Our teams can be happier, healthier and more productive with access to nature.”

“People are spending less time in lobbies, which are really marble-clad mausoleums,” said Jim Irwin, president of New City Properties. “Now open space is the lobby. It’s not just a sales point but makes for a better community.”

Envoy Hybrid Work: The Future of Work Has Arrived

Two out of three office workers want hybrid work according to Envoy’s latest survey.

A year into the pandemic that’s changed just about every aspect of our lives, there’s finally an end in sight. The vaccine rollout in the US is underway and companies need to make their return-to-work plans a reality.

Last fall, Envoy partnered with Wakefield Research to survey employees in the US about returning to the workplace. We learned that nearly half of employees wanted a hybrid work environmentafter the pandemic. With many companies gearing up to welcome their employees back to the workplace, we wanted to see how their sentiment around hybrid work has changed.

In a new survey of 1,000 employees in the US, we asked people their thoughts on returning to the physical office. We learned:

• How many people want to go into the workplace going forward and how they want to use it.

• Who is most concerned about their health and safety going into the workplace.

• Which employees would look for a new job if their employers didn’t offer hybrid work.

In this post, we’ll walk you through three of our key learnings. If you want to dig deeper into the survey results, head to Envoy’s website and read the full report.

'Healthy buildings' enjoy a surge in demand worldwide

A new survey of many of the world’s leading real estate investors finds that 92 percent of respondents expect demand for healthy buildings to grow in the next three years. The report claims that this is a compelling signal of the direction the real estate sector is heading. This finding, among others, is captured in a report titled A New Investor Consensus: The Rising Demand for Healthy Buildings (registration) which claims to be a comprehensive health and wellness study of global real estate investment managers and stakeholders representing aggregate AUM of $5.75 trillion and portfolio investments in real estate totalling approximately US$1.03 trillion.

Coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the Center for Active Design (CfAD), and BentallGreenOak (BGO), the study defines healthy buildings as those optimised for occupant health and safety through a mix of siting, design and operational strategies that measurably improve physical, social and mental health indicators.

The report suggests that COVID-19 has elevated the importance of health in investment decision-making, with 89.5 percent of respondents signalling their intent to enhance their wellbeing-related asset management strategies in the coming year. The need for healthy buildings has been steadily rising over the last decade, with nearly 70 percent of respondents indicating that they were seeing increased demand prior to the pandemic.

De-Densification and the New Metrics of the Office

Now that we are in sight of a widespread return to the office due to the increasingly rapid rollout of vaccines, we are reaching crunch time as companies. What are we going to be doing about our real estate? I doubt there is a company in existence that is not asking itself this fundamental question. I also doubt there are many with a fully formed answer. Because it is difficult to know.

First off, we are all aware that we need to ensure we invite our people back to spaces that cater to their health & wellbeing. And secondly, we know that, to a lesser or greater extent, our companies have largely functioned without us being in the office. According to data from Leesman (probably the best and most comprehensive on working from home), roughly 70 percent of people have found not being in the office neutral or positive to their productivity. For the 30 percent, this is very much not the case. It varies between companies and individuals but we are now pretty aware of what works where.

So we need to rethink the purpose of the office. What is it for? What is its role? Where does a physical office fit into the culture and workflows of a company in the 2020s? What is the value proposition of an office?

AI’s Nuanced Impact On The Workspace Will Be Bigger Than Covid In The Long Run

AI will change the way we use offices, and it will be the tool to help CRE understand those changes too. The shape of the post-pandemic office, adjusting to the contours of a more remote workforce and reopening pressures, is still in flux. For many in commercial real estate who embrace the potential of AI and automation to change the industry, these new technologies will help make sense out of some of the chaos.

“What we’ve seen over the last year is the office is being redefined, and employers are stepping back and trying to understand the purpose of physical space,” Cushman & Wakefield Global Innovation Hub Head Kathleen Cahill said. "The commonality is that physical space needs to drive more value to employers and occupiers, and technology is the main way to do that. There’s no magic formula.”

A wave of automation and artificial intelligence adoption by larger firms is expected start reshaping both who works in offices and what they are doing amid a widespread return to the office.

A 2020 survey by Deloitte found that 8 in 10 corporate effects had already implemented some form of robotic process automation, or RPA, a multibillion-dollar industry dedicated to automating repetitive tasks, increasing efficiency and decreasing expenses.

Welcoming Generation Z to the Workplace

It’s 1995. The newly minted college graduates hail from Generation X— the “lost” generation. As they enter a workplace that’s on the edge of the digital world, anew generation also begins with the babies born that year.

In a few short years, the 2000s will usher in new ways to communicate, collaborate and get work done through the internet and technology. The decade will also welcome the first wave of Millennial employees into the workplace; they will bring a new set of values, preferences and behaviors to organizations.

New normal looking more and more like old normal, say facilities managers

Workers across the UK could return to offices faster than anticipated, according to a new RICS survey of facilities managers. According to the poll, a growing number of respondents say that up to 80 percent of employees will head back once the pandemic is resolved. This is up from less than 60 percent expected in the same poll from the previous quarter ending November 2020. As evidence suggests the UK vaccination programme is taking hold across the country, results to the RICS UK Facilities Management Survey show more respondents starting to believe employees could return to the office in greater numbers than many initially expected in the previous quarter.

The results of the survey echo those of a recent KPMG report which claimed similarly that the degree of change in workplace strategy, at least in the short term, will be not quite as extensive as anticipated.

In the RICS study, expectations around workplace and relocation management services also saw the strongest expectations for growth over the next year – with many anticipating the adoption of a ‘new normal’ that could see workspaces evolving to meet the changing needs of employees and employers. Employers also indicated that sustainability continued to be an important issue as they consider how best to build back and plan how workspaces suit their needs, with those taking this view remaining above 90 percent for the last three quarters.

European office workers are not prepared for ‘work from anywhere’ model

New research by Targus claims that European office workers are to generally unprepared to adopt a new ‘work from anywhere’ model. The representative survey in France, Germany and the UK, claims people are willing to set foot in offices again but expect greater flexibility and trust to work from other locations.

Reduced days spent working in the office was a top three employee expectation in all countries; just under a half of Brits ranked this as their number 1 expectation. But employers are not equipping staff with the necessary tools to work productively and healthily.

As many as a quarter of British office workers were not supplied with or given a budget to purchase equipment needed to work from home by their employer. This was the case for over 55s and staff based in Northern Ireland (36 percent) predominantly. In Germany this rose to 29 percent, and a concerning 35 percent in France.

The working from home experience has differed from household to household across Europe, with some keen to swap their kitchen table desks for their dual screened ergonomically set up workspace. German workers are the keenest to get back to the office, 62 percent, versus 45 percent in the UK. 59 percent in France are reluctant to go back – interestingly women want to return more than men (44 percent vs 39 percent).

Japan’s Extreme Workplace vs. Sweden’s Liberal Flexibility: How Work Culture Shapes The Future Of The Office

In Japan, there is a word for death through overwork, karōshi, given such deaths are not infrequent among workers. In Sweden on the other hand, paid parental leave is 16 months, and the idea of your boss checking on whether you were working hard enough would be severely frowned upon.

The two countries represent the two ends of the spectrum when it comes to white-collar office work. We tend to think of office and workplace culture as an inevitable natural state, but Japan and Sweden show how these distinct cultures are forged by centuries of unique cultural, political and military events.

As has almost every advanced economy across the world, both have been hit by the impact of the coronavirus, exposing these workplace cultures to the need to adapt and work remotely, and there has been a consequent knock-on effect for the office market of big cities like Tokyo and Stockholm. This is where it gets interesting for the real estate professionals of countries like the UK and U.S. The office markets of both countries have remained resilient compared to other big cities like New York and London, providing some lessons for real estate pros in those markets.

Microsoft design executive Jon Friedman on remote work

Over the past year, much has been made of where, when, and how we work. But the sweeping shift to working remotely has raised a deeper question that we’re still not sure how to answer: Who are we at work?

The pandemic has scrambled so much of the “normal” professional experience—commutes, workspaces, business hours, childcare, business travel—that it’s also rewiring our concept of professionalism itself.

For me, “professionalism” began 18 years ago when I started as an intern at Microsoft. Today, I lead a team of more than 500 designers and researchers creating the next generation of communication and creation experiences for Microsoft 365, across both work and life. As you can imagine, design at Microsoft has changed dramatically over the years, and that includes how people collaborate.

When it comes to traditional modes of expression, both Microsofties and our customers typically drew a clear line between work style and personal style. Take emoji or reactions as an example. I use them freely in texts or on social media, but on a productivity platform like Microsoft Teams? As much heart as I put into my work, I never thought I’d “heart” things there. I do that at home, where my guard is down. But now that the office is my home, there are hearts all over the place. I heart everything (unless I’m giving it a thumbs down).

The Hidden Bias of Working From Home

Working from home during a global pandemic has been tough on everyone in different ways, but new research from Steelcase* shows some people carry a heavier burden than others. The study found extensive work-from-home policies may create unintended inequalities because some people don’t have ideal working conditions at home. Those subpar conditions are linked to a decrease in wellbeing and increase in stress, that, in turn, drives people’s productivity and engagement down. As 72% of companies globally say they expect to embrace hybrid work policies — working between home and the office to varying degrees — it’s critical to understand how work conditions at home impact people differently and may hinder business results.

These differences lead to groups of “have” and “have not” employees based on their home situation and work set-ups, which are directly connected to their ability to perform. Yet the people making policy decisions for their organizations are more likely “haves” which may result in a hidden bias — a perception that everyone can perform at their best while working from home.

Industrial Design Students Envision Solutions for a More Flexible Work-from-Home Future

A year of the pandemic has transformed an unprecedented number of homes across the globe into studios, offices, and places of study, and the adaptations of remote work are likely here to stay in a more flexible professional and creative future. Major companies including Twitter and Facebook have already announced plans for permanent remote work options with many others committing to long-term remote work plans. Industrial design students in the Pratt Homework class led by Adjunct Associate Professor Linda Celentano investigated what a better work-from-home space could be. Their projects range from furniture specifically designed for organizing a home office to partitions that can create privacy without the severity of a cubicle.

Despite the timeliness of the course, Celentano had the concept for a Prototypes I class themed to working at home before the pandemic hit, partnering on the idea with Chair of Industrial Design Constantin Boym. “Working at home sounded like a worthy enough topic,” she said. “Never in a million years did we think people around the world were about to be working from their kitchens, closets, out of suitcases, and ultimately from their homes because of a virus. What, we now ask ourselves, does a modern-day desk look like? Home is a place, after all, and not just a space.”

The students were themselves navigating their homes as work, study, and classroom spaces and brought this first-hand experience into the two- and three-dimensional modeling of their projects. “Their designs for their environments reflected some of the needs that grew out of an attempt to find a place to work and live,” Celentano said.

Hybrid working: the end of the clickbait office?

One thing the pandemic has taught us is that to embrace the future of work we need to fundamentally change our understanding of the office – from a stand-alone space where people come to work, to a platform for engagement, that sits amongst many other platforms: Zoom, Teams, cafes, co-working hubs and office spaces are all platforms for engagement.

The term hybrid working refers to the journey many businesses are embarking on to discover how effective these engagement platforms really are at helping them to build upon their culture and get the most from their people. Moving towards hybrid working is a journey with phases: adjust, re-evaluate, and repeat, for a company to establish how best to balance staff happiness, satisfaction and motivation with business resources and productivity, in the long term.

In going through this process, businesses are becoming increasingly mindful of the appropriate constrains that shape this journey: ranging from terms, cost, location and growth, to appetite for change and aspiration, and in some cases, they will be turning all the dials on these at once, to help them find the perfect outcome.

For office architecture and design, the shift towards a hybrid working model, and this process, of embarking into the unknown, means a shift in how we come to measure and evaluate the success of an office space. Over the last decade Instagram has had a big part to play in training us to think of office design in terms of shiny finished projects, an end point, a photo shoot, a full-stop. ‘Agile working’ in particular has given way to vein of design porn, of offices with the most available set ups; from the most vibrant and stimulating break-out and collaboration spaces, to the most cosy and serene areas for concentrated working.

The Rebirth of the Headquarters

We are going through an unparalleled moment in history, where every single organization and business in the world has been forced to rethink what it means to work—the way work is performed, where it is done, by whom, and what it will look like in the future.

Just a month after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, streamed live what would have otherwise been a company town hall session—but an employee leaked the audio. The meeting focused entirely on addressing the results of an internal survey where employees addressed their working conditions. Founded in 2004, the ability for Facebook employees to work from home grew out of possibility and necessity. According to the survey, nearly 95 percent of the employees at Facebook at the time were working from home, and at least half had no desire to return to the office. As a result, Zuckerberg has catapulted Facebook as “the most forward-leaning company on remote work at their scale.”

The shift to remote work is being mirrored—to a degree—by major corporations including JPMorgan, Capital One, Amazon, Microsoft, and Zillow. In 2020, these companies announced they would be expanding their work-from-home policies and restructuring part of their workforce to support remote work.

My experience with Apple Park in Cupertino, California has led me to carefully examine the context of Silicon Valley—a place I have been studying as an academic since 2018 and the address of some of the most disruptive industries in the world. Over the last year, I have identified a series of trends that bring into focus how the office will transform in the future—and the newfound vigor of the headquarters.

Companies such as Citigroup, Ford, TIAA and Target announce hybrid return-to-work plans

The post-vaccine workplace is taking shape, and for many it’s going to be a hybrid model, allowing more remote work but with clear expectations that some days a week will be in the office.

Workforce experts are bracing for a whole new set of post-pandemic upheavals, in some instances more transformative than the unplanned move to working from home last March, with some making efforts to avoid pre-pandemic remote-work mistakes.

“In a lot of ways it’s going to be more disruptive than when we went all remote,” said Brian Kropp, vice president of research at Gartner.

New videoconferencing technology will be added to help in-person and remote workers feel as if they’re on a level playing field. Managers will undergo extensive training to fight against the instinct to give workers in the office preferential treatment. Logistics will be coordinated to ensure those who go into the office don’t get there and find the building empty, perhaps by setting core hours or days for on-site work.

A growing number of major employers of white-collar workers have announced return-to-work plans in recent weeks, outlining a mix of in-person and virtual work that is being described as permanent, or a “new normal.”

The Flexible Office Breakdown Podcasts

As the world starts to go back to the office it becomes more clear that the future of work is distributed. Hybrid work models and an uncertain economic future have created tailwinds for an already growing part of the office market: short-term, fully managed, flexible offices. 

But even with all of the signs that the sector will grow, building owners and managers need to spend time figuring out how and why they will incorporate flexible space into their portfolio. This means having to complete a rather complicated cost-benefit analysis. We talked to experts on the forefront of the flexible office roll-out to try to understand both the challenges and the benefits of this high-touch, high-margin product.

What’s On Tap For Flex Space Post-WeWork

Flex space enjoyed a meteoric rise from 2014 to 2019, with average of 25% growth per year. In 2019, pre-COVID, it made up as much 20% of leasing activity in cities like New York and London. But what made flex space so attractive pre-pandemic would ultimately prove to be its undoing as COVID-19 swept across the country last year.

Yet there are signs the sector is digging out of its COVID hole, the most high-profile example being WeWork’s recent comeback (in the form of a merger that will take the company public via a SPAC). The deal will give the flex office provider $1.3 billion in cash to fund its growth plans after a year in which the company significantly scaled back its footprint and obligations. In 2020, WeWork executed over 100 lease amendments for rent reductions, deferrals, or tenant improvement allowances resulting in an estimated $4 billion reduction in future lease payments.

And as landlords reposition real estate strategies in light of an enduring preference for hybrid work environments, demand for flex space is expected to deepen. A recent JLL survey of 2,000 office workers revealed that two thirds want to work from different locations post-COVID, and office owners are responding by “actively increasing” the space in their buildings devoted to flex work.

“This is more meaningful than a shifting of deckchairs,” says Ben Munn, managing director of flex space at JLL, in the report. “Companies and investors are taking a different view on flex space entirely and are willing to invest because they see this as a bigger proportion of the overall office market than it is currently.”

The Future Of The Workplace Is Uncertain, And Office Owners Are Preparing To Adapt

“There is no clear answer right now. There are a lot more questions than there are answers,” Oxford Properties Group Head Of U.S. Developments Dean Shapiro said on a Bisnow panel last week. "We are living in a period of incredible uncertainty. … [There is] hesitancy from people to make long-term commitments to space, unless they have to. And the reason is nobody has a crystal ball as to what the future looks like."

His firm is a co-developer of the Hudson Yards development on Manhattan’s West Side with Related Cos. It is also now handling the redevelopment of St. John’s Terminal in Hudson Square into a campus for Google. 

Shapiro said there is plenty of conjecture about what office tenants will want for their space, but ultimately, he said, most firms are now considering what will make an office worthwhile.

"The question that a lot of people are asking right now is, ‘Let’s assume we still want to have an office. What is it that is in the office that adds real value?’" Shapiro said. "I don’t think we’re going to have a real answer to this for some time.”

Panelists said a focus on amenities, health and wellness in buildings, as well as making sure the properties are sustainable and energy-efficient, are all going to be key elements when the pandemic subsides. But all agreed there are still major questions about how occupiers will use space.

JPMorgan, Salesforce Join Growing List of Firms Dumping Office Space

Rise of remote work means demand for office space could be permanently lower for some companies

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Salesforce . com Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers are among the major firms looking to unload big blocks of office space, the latest sign that remote work is hurting demand for this pillar of commercial real estate.

Large companies typically sign office leases for a decade or longer, giving them few options for reducing their footprint beyond trying to sublease floors to other tenants. At the end of 2020, 137 million square feet of office space was available for sublease across the U.S., according to CBRE Group Inc. That is up 40% from a year earlier and the highest figure since 2003.

While sublet space increases during every recession as struggling businesses look to cut costs, firms typically add office space when the economy picks up again. But this time many of the companies ditching real estate are doing well financially; they say they need less space because they plan for more employees to work at least part time from home even after the pandemic is over.

That raises the prospect that demand for office space could be permanently lower at some companies, much like the rise of e-commerce has been driving down demand and rents for street-level retail.

The new privacy booth by BuzziSpace providing layout flexibility at the workplace

Designed as a temporary stand-up desk as well as a privacy booth for one, BuzziHug aims to increase productivity at the same time to ensure visual and acoustic privacy at the workplace. This solution can be fixed to the floor or you can enjoy its adaptability, needed ubiquitously in today's office environment.

The booth’s geometric shape appears structural to divide and to define open office spaces while simultaneously creates a visual statement and an aesthetic choice to boost employees' motivation. The half-enclosed cylinder is made using acoustic materials on the exterior to create a welcoming, safe, yet noise-reduced space for workplace concentration, phone calls, video conferences, and a lot more.

The design's interior offers a built-in table in Antwerp Oak or White Laminate, which allows space for computer, notebook, tablet, and more, to further provide comfort and convenience. An optional LED light with two USB charging ports can be added on the inside to accommodate longer work sessions involving electronics.

BuzziHug can be custom-upholstered in a wide range of fabric and color choices to further extend its application possibilities. The design has the option to be bolted to the ground for permanent installation needs.

Framery Collaborates With Ultra To Launch Custom-Made Office PodS

With the world slowly transitioning back to being in the office, workspaces need to be more adaptable and flexible than ever. This latest collaboration between Framery and Helsinki-based design studio Ultra will help make that transition easier. Framery, known for their soundproof private spaces for open offices, tapped on Ultra’s designers to work with Framery’s R&D in creating the newest, high-tech iteration of their office pods, called Framery One.

Over 14 concepts were created to get to this final design, which incorporates leading sound insulation standards, echo-free acoustics, and the latest technology. Nearly all the components of the Framery One pod are exclusively custom-made. These office pods, which have been used by leading companies like Microsoft, Puma, and Tesla, are now available globally to all companies.

Powering-up is a Snap with FSR’s New Chargers

FSR has expanded its line of charging solutions for iPhone®, iPad® or any smart device, with the introduction of power management options for USB-C® connectivity. The Company’s latest Keystone Snap-In charging port is the perfect power option for FSR’s Symphony series as well as the company’s table and floor boxes, wall plates, and Raceway system. The newly launched Dual Combination USB chargers provide a choice exclusively for the Symphony range of table boxes and its pedestal charging tower.

FSR’s Keystone Snap-In charging port is an effortless option that allows an end-user to add USB-C® charging to their workspace at an extremely budget-pleasing price. The Keystone Snap-In incorporates power management integrated circuitry that determines power requirements connected devices. The built-in electronics provides ultra-fast charging using the power available up to 3 amps / 15 watts; a valuable feature since USB-C® speeds up the performance of accessories - such as external hard drives and video gear - with data transfer rates that can accelerate up to 20 times faster. The compact snap-in unit, capable of being remotely powered from 160 feet or more, provides an easily installable solution to accommodate already existing applications.

In addition to the Keystone snap-in charging port, FSR is also introducing a Dual Charger Combination USB Port exclusively for its Symphony collection of table boxes and pedestals. Like the Keystone ports, these chargers incorporate power management integrated circuitry to communicate using todays' protocols to determine the requirements for connected devices. The built-in electronics direct the available power to a single port, or it can divide the power to provide the fastest charging based on the available power.

The Innovators: BrainLit

Before the crisis, health and well-being in the workplace fell into the buzzy amenity category. These days, they are considered crucial.

While many landlords have rushed to revamp spaces to encourage office workers' return, most people are continuing to work remotely. In New York City, for example, only 10% of companies have come back from remote work even as the ramped-up vaccine rollout and loosened restrictions have brought back some of the city bustle.

Now the greatest threat for office real estate owners is not that their buildings could be breeding grounds for infection but that workers will have come to love working from anywhere so much that many won't return at all.

Workers are now asking why they should go into the office when they get the job done just as well from home, said Niclas Olsson, the CEO of Swedish company BrainLit AB. Olsson said BrainLit has an answer to that, in the form of BioCentric lighting that recreates the effects of natural lighting in indoor environments.

Lund-headquartered BrainLit was founded by Tord Wingren, one of the inventors of Bluetooth technology, and offers what the company describes as the world's first lighting system that is individually tailored to a person’s unique biology.

Within the collection of products is UV disinfection lighting that can eliminate pathogens, alongside personalized lighting said to improve immune systems and circadian rhythms, which makes people more alert, healthy and, ultimately, more productive.

It is being used in hospitality, education, retail and offices around the world, with Swedbank and Sony among its clients. It officially launched in the U.S. in March this year, ready for rolling out in offices many workers will be returning to for the first time in over a year.

EisnerAmper Offices – New York City

A welcoming, wellness-infused and biophilic design, EisnerAmper's New York City offices provides a unique and efficient sense of space for employees of the accounting firm giant.

Francis Cauffman Architects pushed the boundaries of workplace design when planning EisnerAmper‘s offices, the tax consultancy’s new location in New York City, New York.

Spurred by rapid growth, national business, and accounting consultancy EisnerAmper, tapped long-time collaborator FCA (Francis Cauffman Architects) to develop their new headquarters, which spans five floors at 733 Third Avenue in New York City, along with Project Managers VVA and JTMagen, one of the leading interior fit out contractors in NYC. Having completed EisnerAmper’s Philadelphia office as well as their San Francisco location—a project that shifted the company’s approach to office design toward a highly flexible workplace—FCA sought to create a New York HQ that pushed the boundaries of workplace design even further. Spread across 125,000 square feet, the collaborative and agile design scheme aligns with EisnerAmper’s vision for expansion, while also adhering to emerging workplace trends within the current environment.

Natural Pod Poised to Grow Impact on U.S. Learning Environments

To advance its goal of creating better learning environments for students and educators, Natural Pod™ is adding two senior U.S. leaders who will help the Canada-based company expand its impact in the education sector.

Joining the team are Michelle Carpenter, Chief Strategy Officer, and Casey Demers, Solutions Partner. These two education design leaders will help Natural Pod™ bring its customer service and support to educators who are working to create better learning environments that are practical, healthy, and sustainable.

Natural Pod holds holistic learning environment change and positive impact on people and planet as its core values. As CEO and Founder Bridgitte Alomes was exploring team expansion, she sought partners who shared these values. “We are a furniture company,” Alomes says, “but we function as a change management organization in some ways. We support educators who are thinking broadly about how space supports the learning experience. Furniture is part of delivering on that possibility, but it involves health, sustainability, indoor/outdoor connections, and more. When partnering with educators, our team works to encourage students to have ownership of their learning outcomes and experience -- the environment in which they learn is a part of that process.”

From Perriand to Saarinen, The Chairs of Star Trek

For the last few years, a team of devout Star Trek fans—including Buenos Aires-based 3D artist Tadeo D’Oria—have been carefully identifying every chair in its science fiction universe. Much of what they’ve found happens to be off-the-shelf designs from well-known designers including Charles and Ray Eames, Charlotte Perriand and Eero Saarinen. Sometimes these designs were painted and modified; sometimes they were used as is to represent the 22nd century. It’s the furniture of Saarinen (in particular two variations of his iconic Tulip chair, with organic shapes and plastic composition) that defines much of the space-age vision for some Star Trek iterations. But Norwegian designer’s branching Stokke Globe Garden certainly wins the award for least functional.

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