Landbank CEO Scott Jacobs, WSP Senior Vice President, Lead Electrical Engineer Caroline Fenlon Harding, Gensler principal and design director Natalie Engels, Twitter Head of Global Design and Construction and Asia-Pacific Operations, Real Estate and Workplace Sameer Pangrekar, Poppin General Manager Chris Robison and Hathaway Dinwiddie project executive Doug Byles. Photo Julie Littman/Bisnow
From open office to bringing the outdoors in, tech companies have long been trendsetters in office design. Companies like Salesforce, Twitter, Pinterest, Airbnb and Oracle each have their own take on how to provide a productive and effective work environment and offer their own unique amenities. But not all decisions have been for the benefit of all, and tech companies have had to create new ways to keep their workers happy.
Tech’s biggest impact has been the creation of the open-office design, which many industries covet. Open-office design was first used in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to Unispace global principal, strategy Albert De Plazaola, who spoke at Bisnow’s recent West Coast Office Expo. The design was created under the premise that collaboration would result in higher productivity. The recession hit and this trend picked up speed because it was seen as a way to increase productivity and use less real estate, he said. But a few years after this trend became popular, complaints about noise, distraction, privacy and smell increased as well.
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