Cool Cribs
With the weather turning nice, we want to be outside pretty much all the time. But we found three offices that could convince us to desert the lawn chair. (We're starting to get sunburned anyway.)
Camden
Over 300 employees office in Camden’s 86k SF in 11 Greenway Plaza, but they have no problem mingling. Project manager Elizabeth Bryson showed off the stairway that connects three of its four floors (it was a major challenge breaking through those floors, and she kept a piece of concrete as a trophy). Camden’s hummingbird mascot shows up throughout the office, from the backlit LED behind Elizabeth here, to the color palette—each floor is based on a different breed. (There are no living hummingbirds though.) The glass separating offices is a frosting pattern inspired by hummingbirds’ flight.
The Camden Café is Elizabeth’s favorite spot in the office, which was designed by Gensler. Each floor has two little break rooms as well as this mega meeting room. The office also features a 24/7 in-house contact center—the only one in the industry. All the desks and monitors are fully adjustable (we saw one sideways monitor, clearly anything goes when you're taking resident complaints at 3am), and walls and cabinets are lined in whiteboards so employees can jot things down easily. There’s no need for bathroom graffiti though; CEO Ric Campo really wanted fun bathrooms, so each has a different wallpaper with quirky messages like “flush every time.”
Camden also has a lounge for its March Madness and Rock Band needs. The office incorporates its people whenever possible, including this quilt—last year, everyone signed a square. There’s also a People Wall with a picture of every employee and his/her goofy catchphrase, and a wall highlighting team members who’ve won awards recently. That employee-centric environment played out in less obvious ways, too: Elizabeth tells us they built four mock offices and had everyone vote on what they liked and didn’t. The top suggestion: Desks with full modesty panels. Another employee favorite is Camden’s costume closet and green room. (We’re told they get used almost every week.)
