CHICAGO—The open office concept has gained some popularity in corporate America, but CBRE wants to establish itself as a leader in the effort to rethink the traditional office. In October, the real estate firm launched its Workplace 360 concept in Chicago after testing it in Los Angeles and other cities. None of the approximately 350 workers in the firm's new 61,000-square-foot office at 321 N. Clark St. has a defined work station, and instead take their new laptops anywhere on three floors and to any of the 14 different types of spaces. Perhaps most striking, the high-tech environment is largely paperless.
“In Chicago, no one else is doing this,” Jamie Georgas, managing director, CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. And ever since the firm moved, throngs of visitors have been eager to see how this new concept impacts the ebb and flow of work.
“We are getting in front of significantly more prospective clients because they all want to see if something like Workplace 360 will help their business,” says Georgas, who estimates CBRE conducts about ten tours a week. “That means we are seeing increased revenue from this already.”
Although the concept was considered a hit in places like Los Angeles, some at CBRE were still concerned about bringing it to Chicago. “We are the biggest office that has done it so far,” Georgas says. “So in some ways we are still blazing a trail.” A chief worry was that the brokers would stay out of the office and defeat efforts to build collaboration among the company's different lines of work. However, “they're all coming into the office and staying longer. This is a place that people want to be.”
Another worry was that people would balk at functioning in a paperless environment. But “for the most part it's been much easier than we anticipated,” Georgas says. Each workstation has two large, easy-to-read screens that enable users to compare documents and do any needed mark-ups. Early in the adoption people began to ask themselves, “'do I really need to print this document out?'”
As a result, CBRE's people in Chicago now need a total of just 500 file drawers, instead of the approximately 1,300 they used before Workplace 360. That helps free up so much so much space that CBRE went from needing 240-square-feet per person to 175-square-feet, but without squeezing employees into tighter spaces.
“We're not trying to cram in a whole bunch of people just to save a lot of money,” Georgas says. From the beginning, the idea was to allow any group of employees to work together as long as needed. “The collaboration and connectivity between the different lines of business has significantly increased,” Georgas says.
"What I really didn't expect was how invigorating the environment was," says Todd Lippman, vice chairman, tenant representation. "You literally see people you haven't seen and meet people you haven't met."
CBRE also provides visitors and employees a concierge, giving the office a hotel-like atmosphere. The 14 different types of spaces include focus rooms, huddle rooms and private offices for a day. The most bustling place is called the “heart,” a big open area that facilitates a lot of interaction.
"A benefit of the free address environment is that that private space, the enclosed space, is available to everyone," says Meredith Bell, associate, workplace strategy.
The concept may have worked out in practice because CBRE did not just impose a top-down vision. “We had a ton of subcommittees which allowed people to have a hand in creating their office,” Georgas says. In addition to helping figure out the configuration of the spaces, employees even had an art committee and a health and wellness committee. “People took great pride in participating.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
