Everyone Wants At Least A Little Creative Office

Creative office is so mainstream now that the most traditional kinds of tenants want at least some of it. That was another takeaway at Bisnow's Boston Creative Office event recently at the Revere.

Traditional tenants are moving toward valuing creative aspects in their space, our speakers said. Perhaps not everything down to the last detail of what a cutting-edge tenant might have, but important elements of creative: space that promotes collaboration, walking, wellness, sustainability.

Office space is now about the experience, as offices borrow a page from the hospitality industry. Tenants are also gravitating toward mixed-use locations, and core urban locations that offer the kind of amenities workers want.

Snapped: MetLife associate director Zain Sayed and Equity Office SVP John Conley.

Sustainability will be an ongoing component in the office of the future, because even now it's a baseline for office space, our speakers said. But sustainable will mean more than energy efficiency and other mechanical features.

The way a building promotes wellness—and how that's measured, either through formal scoring or other methods—will be increasingly important in the coming years. Wellness concepts mean thinking about the office environment beyond the initial design and construction, and will have a tremendous impact in the future.

Here's DPR Construction project executive Chris Gorthy, Stantec senior principal Lisa Killaby and RDM director-sales Joe Leach, who moderated.

Has the pendulum swung too far in the direction of open-plan, collaborative office space? Our speakers didn't think so, on the whole, though they acknowledged the need for a variety of workspaces will continue.

No one thinks office cubicles are going to come back into style—the cube farms of the '80s are every bit as dated now as the rows of closed offices of the Mad Men-era. Neither has any likelihood of making a comeback. They used to fit how people worked (or were compelled to work), but technology and worker attitudes have made them obsolete.

See yesterday's newsletter for more coverage of the Boston Creative Office event.