Gaining Savings and Productivity From Smaller Offices - J Michael Welton via NYTimes.com ⇢

22squared compressed into two floors instead of three, and reorganized the space to shape a new culture:

J Michael Welton via NYTimes.com

“We wanted people to be able to work wherever the work is, in whatever style,” said Mike Grindell, the executive vice president and chief administrative officer of 22squared, an advertising agency in Atlanta that recently completed a renovation.

The agency originally had three floors at 1170 Peachtree Street NE, and was subletting two-thirds of one of the floors in 2009 when it hired the large architecture company Gensler to redesign its quarters and ensure it met LEED gold energy standards. Gensler teamed with Carter USA, an Atlanta-based commercial real estate company, as project manager and Humphries & Company from nearby Smyrna, Ga., as general contractor.

At 22squared, a privately held agency with $64.7 million in 2011 revenue, the team ended up with a 50,000-square-foot space on two floors that went from an emphasis on hierarchy to one about equality. Before the renovation, natural light was reserved for private offices and conference rooms; now sunlight reigns for all.

Walls were dismantled. Employee work stations are now by windows. Private offices are at the center of the firm’s two floors. Small collaborative spaces are prevalent. White boards and glass walls for writing are everywhere. Work groups come together, dissolve, then come back together again.

By Gensler’s own measure, the revised space has delivered favorable results. Collaboration has increased by 22 percent, according to Gensler’s Workplace Performance Index, which rates workplaces and employees before and after renovations. That score brings 22squared’s rating up to par with the top performers in the advertising industry.

“You see and feel work happening all over the space,” Mr. Grindell said. “There’s better density, energy and productivity on two floors now than on two and a third before.”

Lowering the costs and barriers hampering cooperation, and creating a new tempo for work.

30 May 2012 15
22squaredgenslerthe future of workworkplacethe new workplace

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