Story about new office space in Boston Globe
Open, for business
Transformation of company offices into communal spaces is spreading
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | May 29, 2008
At the new Hill Holliday digs in the Financial District, chief executive Mike Sheehan's office is half the size of his old space and fashioned completely out of glass, so anyone, at any time, can see exactly what he's doing. The same thing goes for president Karen Kaplan, right across the hall.
The sleek new look for the ad agency is meant to convey honesty, transparency, and community. Gone are the tall-walled cubicles and closed-door spaces that dominated the old headquarters at the Hancock Tower where 65 percent of employees had offices. Now, 65 percent of the staff sits in open areas with exposed duct work along the ceilings. Dozens of common spaces spill off the hallways.
Hill Holliday's makeover is one of several office redesigns in Boston that showcase a movement toward more communal workplaces and away from the traditional closed-door corporate environments. After some resistance, attorneys at Bingham McCutchen moved into their new glass offices Tuesday at One Federal Street, a rare display of openness among lawyers. And when shaving giant Gillette unveils its new headquarters next year in South Boston, none of the offices will have doors.
"The day of the big, closed-door palatial corner office is over," said Sheehan, who added that the new open architecture makes it easier to wave in employees who are walking by his door. "In business today, there is a greater demand and expectation for accountability and transparency. And we know the success of a company is tied to the ability to build a strong community. So you need to open things up. Air is good."
Boston and other cities got a taste of radical office space design during the height of the dot-com craze when technology companies turned the workplace inside out, getting rid of offices and opting for pool tables rather than conference tables.
Now, the transformation of offices into more interactive, open environments is spreading, influenced by an increasingly mobile and global workforce, technological advances, and a desire to make smarter use of real estate, according to Tom Vecchione of Gensler, a leading architecture, design, planning, and consulting firm.
These open spaces facilitate communication, accessibility, and speed of decision making, executives say, making for more productive employees. Over the past five years, workplaces on average have seen a 30 percent growth in collaborative space nationally, though Boston, with its more conservative corporate culture, has been slower to change.
"Boston is definitely more insular and more traditional in its tastes. But we're seeing Boston become more cosmopolitan, with new fashion boutiques, exotic foods, and hotels. And now we're starting to see those same things influence the workplace," said Vecchione, design director on the Hill Holliday project who made a presentation at last week's "Front End of Innovation" conference in Boston on the evolution of the workplace.
In Hill Holliday's new space at 53 State St., interior and exterior offices have glass walls so everyone gets 360-degree city views of everything from the Custom House and Faneuil Hall to the Charles River and Back Bay. Chartreuse and orange oversize chairs accent the floors to create pockets of casual interaction. A lunch area features a long, tall bar table with stools and a television with video games where employees from different departments play Xbox together. A conference room near the reception area opens up to fit the entire staff of 450 employees for companywide gatherings. There are a few rooms with real walls and phones for employees who need privacy to call doctors or yell at boyfriends, Sheehan said.
To be sure, the Hill Holliday project was not an instant hit with all workers. There was jockeying for coveted office space, and it took some time for anxious employees, like Remi Nichols, to settle into the new space in late March.
Nichols, an account executive who has worked at Hill Holliday for the past eight years, gave up her office to move into an open work station grouped with five other colleagues at desks. She left behind a table, bookcase, and extra chair in her old office - along with her privacy.
"On the first day, I was a little shell-shocked because this is really open and I'm really sitting close to people," Nichols said. "The first two weeks were a little tough. You need to relearn your office etiquette and your phone voice because you don't have the privacy anymore."
Still, she said the new space makes communication with her team quicker, and it's easier to convene informal meetings either at their desks or in nearby conference rooms, rather than reserve space like they used to in the Hancock Tower office. Nichols said she is finally putting faces to people she's only e-mailed for years.
Bingham McCutchen is also hoping to create a better sense of community at its new headquarters at One Federal Street and win over attorneys reluctant to move into the glass offices. There's concern over privacy, confidentiality, and just keeping the spaces neat now that everyone can see.
"The heavy use of glass is not typical of law offices. Our population has resisted that in the design stages, but people became very quickly acclimated in our new offices in London, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco," said Toni Belding, Bingham's chief real estate and facilities officer. "Since we began redesigning, we've been opening the offices with more and more glass."
Besides the glass offices, the new Bingham space will feature a two-story meeting room that anchors the operational hub and can accommodate more than 250 people, a full cafeteria for employees and clients, and an area for visitors to connect their laptops.
When privacy is required, Bingham will have several rooms without glass fronts and others are positioned in a way that are largely private. Throughout the new building, copiers, printers, and coffee stations, hidden in the current space, will come out into the open and serve as gathering points for workers.
When Gillette's headquarters moves from the Prudential Tower to its South Boston manufacturing plant next year, employees will get a taste of the open-office environment promoted by its Cincinnati-based corporate parent, Procter & Gamble.
The new design will feature low walls and more glass, and offices won't have doors. The space savings resulting from the open office plan will allow Gillette to create common break areas with casual seating, coffee bars, and general gathering spots.
At P&G's other offices, this open-door concept has lead to increased productivity and team cooperation, according to P&G chief executive A.G. Lafley.
"When I first went to the executive floor in Cincinnati, it looked like one of the law firms or banking firms here in Boston - a lot of oak, big doors. What happened was a person in one office would send a memo to a person four offices away instead getting up off their tail, walking down the hall, and talking to them," Lafley said. "That just doesn't happen anymore. . . . Things get done a lot faster, problems get identified sooner, opportunities get identified sooner."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
Transformation of company offices into communal spaces is spreading
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | May 29, 2008
At the new Hill Holliday digs in the Financial District, chief executive Mike Sheehan's office is half the size of his old space and fashioned completely out of glass, so anyone, at any time, can see exactly what he's doing. The same thing goes for president Karen Kaplan, right across the hall.
The sleek new look for the ad agency is meant to convey honesty, transparency, and community. Gone are the tall-walled cubicles and closed-door spaces that dominated the old headquarters at the Hancock Tower where 65 percent of employees had offices. Now, 65 percent of the staff sits in open areas with exposed duct work along the ceilings. Dozens of common spaces spill off the hallways.
Hill Holliday's makeover is one of several office redesigns in Boston that showcase a movement toward more communal workplaces and away from the traditional closed-door corporate environments. After some resistance, attorneys at Bingham McCutchen moved into their new glass offices Tuesday at One Federal Street, a rare display of openness among lawyers. And when shaving giant Gillette unveils its new headquarters next year in South Boston, none of the offices will have doors.
"The day of the big, closed-door palatial corner office is over," said Sheehan, who added that the new open architecture makes it easier to wave in employees who are walking by his door. "In business today, there is a greater demand and expectation for accountability and transparency. And we know the success of a company is tied to the ability to build a strong community. So you need to open things up. Air is good."
Boston and other cities got a taste of radical office space design during the height of the dot-com craze when technology companies turned the workplace inside out, getting rid of offices and opting for pool tables rather than conference tables.
Now, the transformation of offices into more interactive, open environments is spreading, influenced by an increasingly mobile and global workforce, technological advances, and a desire to make smarter use of real estate, according to Tom Vecchione of Gensler, a leading architecture, design, planning, and consulting firm.
These open spaces facilitate communication, accessibility, and speed of decision making, executives say, making for more productive employees. Over the past five years, workplaces on average have seen a 30 percent growth in collaborative space nationally, though Boston, with its more conservative corporate culture, has been slower to change.
"Boston is definitely more insular and more traditional in its tastes. But we're seeing Boston become more cosmopolitan, with new fashion boutiques, exotic foods, and hotels. And now we're starting to see those same things influence the workplace," said Vecchione, design director on the Hill Holliday project who made a presentation at last week's "Front End of Innovation" conference in Boston on the evolution of the workplace.
In Hill Holliday's new space at 53 State St., interior and exterior offices have glass walls so everyone gets 360-degree city views of everything from the Custom House and Faneuil Hall to the Charles River and Back Bay. Chartreuse and orange oversize chairs accent the floors to create pockets of casual interaction. A lunch area features a long, tall bar table with stools and a television with video games where employees from different departments play Xbox together. A conference room near the reception area opens up to fit the entire staff of 450 employees for companywide gatherings. There are a few rooms with real walls and phones for employees who need privacy to call doctors or yell at boyfriends, Sheehan said.
To be sure, the Hill Holliday project was not an instant hit with all workers. There was jockeying for coveted office space, and it took some time for anxious employees, like Remi Nichols, to settle into the new space in late March.
Nichols, an account executive who has worked at Hill Holliday for the past eight years, gave up her office to move into an open work station grouped with five other colleagues at desks. She left behind a table, bookcase, and extra chair in her old office - along with her privacy.
"On the first day, I was a little shell-shocked because this is really open and I'm really sitting close to people," Nichols said. "The first two weeks were a little tough. You need to relearn your office etiquette and your phone voice because you don't have the privacy anymore."
Still, she said the new space makes communication with her team quicker, and it's easier to convene informal meetings either at their desks or in nearby conference rooms, rather than reserve space like they used to in the Hancock Tower office. Nichols said she is finally putting faces to people she's only e-mailed for years.
Bingham McCutchen is also hoping to create a better sense of community at its new headquarters at One Federal Street and win over attorneys reluctant to move into the glass offices. There's concern over privacy, confidentiality, and just keeping the spaces neat now that everyone can see.
"The heavy use of glass is not typical of law offices. Our population has resisted that in the design stages, but people became very quickly acclimated in our new offices in London, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco," said Toni Belding, Bingham's chief real estate and facilities officer. "Since we began redesigning, we've been opening the offices with more and more glass."
Besides the glass offices, the new Bingham space will feature a two-story meeting room that anchors the operational hub and can accommodate more than 250 people, a full cafeteria for employees and clients, and an area for visitors to connect their laptops.
When privacy is required, Bingham will have several rooms without glass fronts and others are positioned in a way that are largely private. Throughout the new building, copiers, printers, and coffee stations, hidden in the current space, will come out into the open and serve as gathering points for workers.
When Gillette's headquarters moves from the Prudential Tower to its South Boston manufacturing plant next year, employees will get a taste of the open-office environment promoted by its Cincinnati-based corporate parent, Procter & Gamble.
The new design will feature low walls and more glass, and offices won't have doors. The space savings resulting from the open office plan will allow Gillette to create common break areas with casual seating, coffee bars, and general gathering spots.
At P&G's other offices, this open-door concept has lead to increased productivity and team cooperation, according to P&G chief executive A.G. Lafley.
"When I first went to the executive floor in Cincinnati, it looked like one of the law firms or banking firms here in Boston - a lot of oak, big doors. What happened was a person in one office would send a memo to a person four offices away instead getting up off their tail, walking down the hall, and talking to them," Lafley said. "That just doesn't happen anymore. . . . Things get done a lot faster, problems get identified sooner, opportunities get identified sooner."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
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