Friday, August 12, 2022

Return To The Corporate Campus — Not The Office

Why MillerKnoll is betting big on retail

There’s No Place Like the Office: Infusing Hospitality Design Into the Workplace

News

Being with people may be the new workplace amenity — and a compelling reason to draw people back to the office for those that haven’t returned.
 
The role of the office has changed. Per Gensler’s global workplace research, office workers cite that “working in-person with team/colleagues” is the number one reason to come into the office. And it was the top reason by industry, by generation, and by country, regardless of when we surveyed throughout the pandemic. In the U.S., connecting and socializing with coworkers were also important. Being with people may be the new workplace amenity — and the draw back to the office for those companies that haven’t already returned.
Audible’s new food delivery app aims to help restaurants in downtown Newark, New Jersey, grapple with uncertainty.
Bisnow Reports speaks to Moody’s Analytics Head of Commercial Real Estate Economics Victor Calanog.
Shake Shack is blaming its lagging sales on the fact workers are not returning to work en masse, particularly in the major cities where the chain makes most of its money.

Analysts had expected the company would see revenue hit $238.4M last quarter, but on Thursday Shake Shack reported $230.8M in revenue, Bloomberg reported. Its stock price fell 15% after the report.

The Workplace

Our lives are influenced by seasonal and cyclical events, so what if our work behaviors followed suit? We explore the possibilities of seasonal work.
FCA’s Steven Stainbrook explains why it’s time to return to the corporate campus as the general population is not returning to pre-pandemic.
This week the controversial author Malcolm Gladwell opened up a floodgate of criticism with his statement on a podcast that working from home is hurting one of our most necessary desires, the feeling of belonging.
More companies are seeking and implementing clever ways to make offices fit the modern worker’s needs with modular design – think acoustic panels, storage units and room dividers – which allow employees to use the same space for different needs.
Office occupancy is still nowhere near its pre-pandemic levels. Employers are navigating a complex landscape to get their staff back in the office as office workers have made it known that they prefer to work at home in some capacity. If companies really want their employees to return to in-person work, they need to incentivize coming to the office. Some companies like Google have gone as far as to lower the pay of workers that don’t come into the office. Other companies have preferred to use the carrot, giving perks and coordinating in-office events. Some of these tactics have worked well, others…not so much.

Trends

Google has always been a believer in the power of the office. And when giant, innovative companies like Google make waves regarding the workplace, whether
Markets that heated up during the pandemic, fueled by out-of-town money, are starting to cool, as migration shifts are showing people are wanting to live closer to work.

The 2020-21 march of high-paid remote workers to more affordable locations such as Boise, Austin, Phoenix and several Florida markets such as Miami, took their toll on local home prices, Redfin reported.

Hybrid Working

Ahe way employees use the office has changed during the past few years, and with good reason.

Hybrid working has made a splash in the corporate world, transitioning from a somewhat niche “perk” to something that’s become expected by over 70% of professionals worldwide.

While this shift has many benefits, it also leaves facility managers, CFOs, and business owners with a dangling question: what will happen with our office real estate?

M&A deals rarely achieve their expected benefits – and integrating hybrid working teams has made things even harder.

Coworking

Conceived in the mid-nineties, coworking has evolved into a force for collaboration worldwide. As we recognize International Coworking Day, not only is the coworking movement alive and well, it’s poised to play a starring role in the Future of Work.

Design

Kristin Cerutti of NELSON explores how law office design is moving away from hierarchical spaces and adopting the free-thinking plan.
In this episode of the Gensler Design Exchange podcast, they discuss the importance of infusing hospitality design into workplaces to turn offices into a destination, rather than an obligation.

Flex Office

Competition is tough, especially in a well-established market that has only grown in size. Throw in a high-tech foundation and it becomes extremely difficult to create something so different that a small company can outdistance larger ones.

A startup called The Office Exchange is facing exactly this tall hurdle. In a press release, the company calls itself “a platform allowing decision makers on both sides of the commercial real estate market to host or be a guest in available office spaces.”

The Metaverse

Cuban invested in an NFT firm that recently moved into metaverse real estate. Now he’s skeptical of that move.

Real Estate

Manhattan was the most expensive office space in the US last year at $91 per square foot on average – but London was the top spot globally, according to a Point2 survey of CommercialEdge data and global leasing information gleaned by major brokerages.

Premium office space in London reached $163 psf per year, according to the analysis, which cross-referenced CommercialEdge, JLL, CBRE, and Cushman & Wakefield data.

Makers

Little more than a year after Herman Miller bought its big competitor Knoll, the newly combined company, MillerKnoll, is in the midst of a dramatic expansion of its retail footprint, both through physical stores and e-commerce. If you take into account the design behemoth’s family of brands—including Design Within Reach, Hay and Muuto—MillerKnoll has nearly doubled its store count and expanded its online presence globally, with plans for more to come.
Interface, Inc. announced results for the second quarter ended July 3, 2022. Net sales totaled $347 million, up 17.6% year-over-year. Excluding negative foreign currency impacts, net sales were up 22.8% year-over-year. Orders increased 10% year-over-year on a currency-neutral basis. GAAP operating income up 18.1% year-over-year; adjusted operating income up 24.0% year-over-year.

Dealers

In ThinkLab’s latest design hackathon survey, we asked more than 850 designers from all corners of the design ecosystem about their preferred balance of digital and human during the product specification process. The respondents were a mix of architects and designers (A&D) at firms, end user designers, and dealer designers. While there were key similarities across the board, what’s important to the dealer designer from a brand is markedly different.

Products

Designed by 13&9 Design, this addition to the BuzziPleat family uses expert crafts-manship to reinterpret ancient techniques of smocking and pleating used in fashion design.
Scalable, with infinite parametric options, the inclusive collection of modular seating and tables is ideal for the open office landscape, reception areas and even small huddle rooms where collaborative work is desired.
Ergonomic comfort often doesn’t equal aesthetic delight. With these office chairs, however, the two go hand in hand.
This standing desk might actually be the most tech-packed device in your office.
The best-selling N701 Sofa, designed by Jacques Deneef, is now available in a sustainable upholstery.
The lighting system centers around Gunnar’s floodlight projector, a robust LED luminaire whose fluted housing brings to mind the columns of Classical and Neoclassical architectural movements.
This oak and steel lFauteuil Kangourou lounge chair from Vitra is named for its form, a silhouette profile resembling a sitting kangaroo.
The nine new patterns are made of technical, functional fabrics for sunny outdoor spaces to indoor places, and everything in between.
Originally launched in 1954 by brothers Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni with its simple tripod design and elegant stature, Luminator is an exercise in functional minimalism and remains incredibly modern over 60 years later.

Projects

Reviving a post-industrial site in East Austin, Fifth + Tillery reimagines a large warehouse footprint as a vibrant indoor-outdoor creative office building. Marking the transition from a lush neighborhood to an industrial district, the design concept for the building infuses its industrial surroundings with vibrant green spaces.
Designing a thoughtful brand experience that brings the right stories to life is a powerful tool in building engagement and alignment between employee and employer purpose, and this is exemplified in LinkedIn’s new Omaha headquarters.

Events

This August sees the inaugural edition of a brand-new design festival, set to become an annual fixture on the international design calendar Design Helsinki will run from 24-25 August in Finland’s capital city which this year celebrates

Last Word

The typical American office worker consumes 1,040 cups of coffee each year, totaling to 20 cups per week. American office workers love guzzling a cup o’ joe so much that the coffee pot has replaced the water cooler as the symbol of workplace camaraderie. With so many office workers cradling a cup of coffee throughout the day, is it any wonder that there is a strong correlation between an office’s rent and its proximity to a Starbucks store?
Where did it all start? When did someone first think, man, I need to add some wheels to a chair, pronto. Well, let’s find out, shall we?
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