A conference room on the boards for Stanford University’s Department of Public Safety by RossDrulisCusenbery Architecture
For years now, designers have been emphasizing natural lighting, ventilation, and connectivity to nature as ways to improve employee health and wellness. Now that the coronavirus is much more likely to be transmitted indoors—the risk is nearly 20 times greater, according to one study—a strong case could be made for moving some office work completely outside. “The benefits of light and fresh air are pretty self-evident, and the pandemic only reinforces that,” says Christopher McCartin, managing director of design and construction at real estate developer Tishman Speyer, which has been including “significant outdoor space” in all of its office developments nationwide.
While employers on the temperate West Coast may have an advantage when it comes to incorporating outdoor spaces, the concept has been spreading to other climes. Los Angeles–based RIOS (formerly Rios Clementi Hale Studios) hopes their design for a 500,000-square-foot, five-story office complex in Atlanta, currently in the permitting stage, will catch on as a model. All circulation corridors are open-air, and each floor has balconies that are at least 10 feet wide and can accommodate conference tables; they are also located on the north side of the building for shade, protected from rain by overhangs, and cooled by ceiling fans. Designed before the pandemic, the project is continuing to move forward rapidly. “The client can see that the benefits they signed up for—which seemed revolutionary at the time—are what the market is demanding,” says Mark Motonaga, creative director at RIOS.
Neglected terraces and balconies on existing office buildings are also being pressed into service. Valerio Dewalt Train is applying the same level of attention and design to terraces as to interiors for two buildings they’re remodeling in Silicon Valley. In one case, the firm is subdividing a large 3,000-square-foot terrace into several outdoor “rooms” for different uses. Bill Turner, principal at the firm’s Palo Alto office, notes that these spaces can sometimes be cold and windswept. In the past, the architects have implemented wind buffers in the form of tall glass panels, like those on a restaurant terrace, and hedges.