Here's a one example: Floor plates of the past, replete with corners for coveted executive offices in enclosed office schemes, have given way to sleeker skins with more flexible space for open office layouts. Column-free lease depths are highly desired, Brown says, yet the structural and financial sweet spot of clear span spaces within reasonable floor-to-floor heights results in relatively little wiggle room to push boundaries and break new ground.

“LPL Financial's new southeast headquarters provided a project with a client willing to break the mold of traditional office design,” Brown says. “They equated investing in the new office to an investment in their employees, with the opportunity to drive employee well-being and demonstrate their corporate commitment to social responsibility. The firm is consolidating more than 1,000 employees spread across several offices in Charlotte to a single campus, comprising 450,000 square feet on 27.9 acres.” Stay tuned for part two of this interview, in which Brown discusses more statics of modern office design.

For this project tvsdesign kept traditional lease depths but moved the building's core out of the center to make a large contiguous space that allows daylight to reach more of the space and creates views out of both sides of the building. Brown appealed to the employer's desire to encourage an active campus by relocating exit stairs outside the primary building floor plate and framing them in glass to allow in more light and also encouraging employees to take the stairs.

“Technological advances in networking have lengthened the distance requirements to computers and phones that drove many central core rules,” Brown says. “We took advantage of that new flexibility in this design, and the open floor plate will also reduce redundant circulation and simplify alternative office solutions.”