Work Redefined: The Creative Office Space of the Future, Market briefs

Midway CEO Jonathan Brinsden, left, leads the workplace panel discussion at the GreenStreet multi-use project in downtown Houston.

In Houston, Alchemy and amenity-rich environments were showcased by four heavy hitters in the design/development world at GreenStreet, the multi-use project developed by Midway Cos. in downtown Houston.

Midway’s CEO Jonathan Brinsden welcomed John Lewis of WeWork, Dean Strombom, a principal of the Gensler architecture firm, and Mark Motonaga, a principal with Rios Clementi Hale Studios to share perspectives on the national trends and the creative forces behind them. Motonaga, of Los Angeles, has done much of the re-imagining for GreenStreet’s conversion to a downtown corporate campus at the nexus of the most traveled METRO rail line and a newly redesigned signature retail corridor.

Brinsden, in a panel discussion last week, introduced his co-panelists and models that “serve users, not just house them.”

Lewis flew in from New York, exhibiting the contagious energy that has come to be synonymous with WeWork. He explained how WeWork achieves a level of activation to engage employees. “We de-couple the requirements of having a lot of cash and signing long-term leases,” Lewis said.

In He cited the Ace Hotel at 20 W. 29th in Nyc, a place that is alive with ideas and fun to be in, as indicative of the kind of “space as service” they offer. The four-star hotel’s initial description reads, “steps from the Museum of Sex and minutes from the Empire State Building.” He showed another example where only half the space was actually for work and the rest was soft seating, storage, circulation. “By opening it up to be used by many, there’s an alchemy and people are getting more amenities and paying less. That’s magic for a CFO. We are working with 20 percent of the Fortune 500 companies.”

“We are setting the tone for how people work,” Lewis said about WeWork. “This is about placing the human back into the workplace.”

Strombom, an Energy Practice leader at Gensler whose specialty is workplace performance said, “We’ve seen it in every one of the industries we work in. The conventionally designed office often holds people back from working at their highest levels,” He showed signature hallmarks, including the Air BNB and Facebook headquarters in San Francisco, The Garage at Northwestern in Evanston, IL, a collaboration between the university and the community where the parking lot stripes are still on the floor and the ETSY headquarters, which has its roots in Brooklyn. Gensler’s open concept has been implemented recently at the Houston Chronicle’s new suburban digs at 4747 Southwest Freeway. Office space as well as printers, the sleek kitchen and coffee haven is designed for utility and journalistic collaboration.

Gensler designed this innovative new 280,000-SF office building in Culver City, Calif. Every other floor has 20-foot ceilings. Image: Gensler

“Our C3 Culver City spec office building is an example of what we’ll be doing in the future,” says Strombom. “Every other floor has 20-ft. ceilings, allowing tenants on those floors to add mezzanines to accommodate growth; and there are a series of interior and exterior stair ideas to connect floors in interesting ways.”