CBRE Launches High-Tech Open Office

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.