The following resources are for taskforce brainstorming and educational purposes.
FOM Guiding Principles (Arlington Economic Development)
The Future Office Market Guiding Principles represent the key results of an Arlington Economic Development staff and Economic Development Commission Task Force study of factors affecting the office market in light of structural shifts in the use and demand for office space.
Mid Year Report (Arlington Economic Development)
The purpose of the Mid-Year Report is to share study team research and summarize experiences from the Task Force work to-date. The report is a foundation for the next round of work, in which recommendations about the future of the office market will be developed. The report identifies initial topics for policy consideration, including land use, infrastructure and competitiveness elements.
Restless generation is a challenge – and a huge opportunity – for employers.
In the Office of the Future, Community Spaces Become Central (Officing Today)
As employees focus on working in open, shared office spaces and, for the Millennials generation, even perhaps living in open, shared apartment communities (as seen in the new WeLive concept from coworking leader WeWork), shared experiences are more and more critical to the blurring relationship between work and personal lives.
Tear down that cubicle wall, office furniture designers say (NWI Times)
Millennials, mobile devices and knowledge worker jobs are becoming more prevalent in corporate America and reshaping the way workplaces are laid out. KI Furniture and other business furniture makers displayed how they have been reinventing the office for the next generation at the NeoCon office design expo at Merchandise Mart near downtown Chicago last week.
Designed to work (Live Mint)
Till recently, employees of software company Microsoft India in Gurgaon, adjoining the Capital, would budget an extra 10-20 minutes for all meetings. With the office spread across four different floors in two separate buildings, DLF Cyber Greens and DLF Infinity, they just had to. In February, the Gurgaon team shifted to a new, 70,000 sq. ft office in DLF Epitome–11km away–partly to fix this road bump in active collaboration.
D.C. area’s Top Workplaces are reimagining the office (The Washington Post)
As the economy improves, more workers feel comfortable switching jobs, which can make it harder to retain the most talented workers. So it’s no surprise that Washington area employers are striving to build the kind of workplace culture that makes top-notch employees want to stick around for the long haul.
LMO Advertising – WBJ Best Places to Work Video (LMO Advertising)
LMO Advertising, the largest advertising agency in the D.C. area, was named one of this year’s Greater Washington’s ‘Best Places to Work’ by the Washington Business Journal. Employees have cited the openness of the new space as imperative to greater collaboration and teamwork.
Helping Businesses Use Workplace Design to Impact their Bottom Line (The Engaged Scholar)
Many studies have shown that the design of a workplace has an impact on employee performance and business efficiency. According to the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the oldest and largest professional organization for interior designers, “Managers recognize that employee satisfaction and productivity rise in well-designed workplaces,” and that “design…adds to the bottom line by stimulating sales, attracting and retaining customers or clients, and transforming rooms into destinations.”
Are you in an unhealthy office relationship? (The Washington Post)
If you spend more waking hours in your office building than with your significant other, you and your workspace had better be a good match. Studies have shown that office buildings aren’t benign containers but active contributors to good – or poor – health, mood and productivity. Your office can do you right or wrong in many ways, till demolition do you part.
Top 10 Coolest Coworking Spaces in the US (PGi)
With flexible working hours, mobile productivity and virtual meetings becoming the new normal for professionals across the globe, start-ups and freelancers are looking to alternatives to traditional office environments to stay connected and get inspired.
Work and the city (David Craig, CannonDesign)
David Craig’s presentation given at the Arlington Future Office Market Task Force meeting on May 22, 2014.
The Mind Does Not Belong in a Cubicle (CityLab)
A group of 16 people sits in front of large Mac desktops in clusters of three and four at a start-up in Brooklyn. With its open floor plan, casual dress code, and creative staff, this is considered a great place to work—but still there is something vaguely dissatisfying about the space, and it is not the only office like this.
2016 U.S. Workplace Survey (Gensler)
Gensler’s 2016 U.S. Workplace Survey provides critical insights on how and where work is happening today, how effectively the workplace supports that work, and how the workplace environment impacts overall employee experience
Is Your Office Making You Unproductive? (The Wall Street Journal)
In a new study, a large design firm responsible for creating corporate offices world-wide has found that most modern workspaces, while built to foster collaboration and ties between workers, may stifle our ability to focus and get things done.
Office of Today, Workplace of Tomorrow (YouTube)
This video illustrates how we design for the workplace of the future, through a mix of current trends and timeless ideas.
The Best Workplace Luxuries Anywhere (Forbes)
Some companies, notably Google, have upped their workplace amenities, making the office into something a little like a mini city. We’re talking nap pods, laundry rooms and massages. Here are some of the best goodies you might hope for in an office.
Just Because You Built It Doesn’t Mean They Will Come (Jan Johnson and Steve Hargis)
In this paper, Jan Johnson, Vice President, Allsteel, and Steve Hargis, Senior Vice President, HOK, take a look at how to plan for effective workplace interaction and collaboration.
NetWork: The Future Workplace (Judith, Heerwagen, Daniel Anderson, and William Porter)
Allsteel commissioned the creation of this paper from three thought leaders who share their views of the future workplace. The paper identifies ways in which workplace settings differ and what impact that has on workers.
Active design in offices gets workers to move (USA Today)
The push to reverse the obesity epidemic and promote physical fitness is spilling into design and architecture and beginning to target one of the nation’s most sedentary environments: the office.
The Open-Office Trap (The New Yorker)
The open office was originally conceived by a team from Hamburg, Germany, in the nineteen-fifties, to facilitate communication and idea flow. But a growing body of evidence suggests that the open office undermines the very things that it was designed to achieve.
10 Questions to Ask When Designing Your Office (Entrepreneur)
At some businesses, individual cubicles and offices are being dismantled in favor of a more open environment in which an employee’s work station is wherever he happens to plug in his laptop.
What Is the Office of the Future? (Entrepreneur)
Ask today’s architects about tomorrow’s office, and the conversation is likely to include touchpoints such as communication, collaboration and integration.
The Creative Office Revolution (Bisnow)
Thought-leaders answered questions such as: How is working in the best environment going to change the world? Who is leading this brigade? What are the new solutions?
Transforming the Workplace (Dianne Juba, GSA)
Dianne Juba’s presentation given at the Arlington Future Office Market Task Force meeting on March 27, 2014.
DC: The Big Office Transformation (Bisnow)
Most firms are shrinking footprints, eschewing offices for open floor plans, and some are even ditching the office altogether.
Office Envy: A Walk Through Opower’s Headquarters (InTheCapital)
Opower might be busy preparing for its reported IPO, but they were still gracious enough to invite us inside and show us their Arlington office digs.
Flexible approaches needed to predict and regulate parking (The Washington Post)
Housing people, businesses and other functions also entails housing cars. But in the future how many cars will we really need, and where should we park them?
The Monuments of Tech (The New York Times)
Big Internet companies love to talk about how they are “disrupting” one thing or another, but they still want what big companies have always wanted: workplaces that memorialize their products and values.
Ending the Tyranny of the Open-Plan Office (Businessweek)
The key to making workers happy and productive is having a mix of spaces for different activities.
Are cool offices the key to success? (CNN)
Rather than a lobby full of marble or an expensive art collection, it’s now living walls and natural light that’s most admired.
15 Coolest Offices in Tech (Business Insider)
From hammocks and slides to tree houses, these 15 tech companies opened their doors to us and blew us away.
CBRE New Ways of Working (CB Richard Ellis)
A video about workplace design and function at the new CB Richard Ellis office in the Netherlands.
Awesome Workplaces in Silicon Valley: Amenities in The Office (Aol)
Beyond handsome salaries, many tech firms also lavish their workers with benefits, leading to some unique and even quirky offerings.
The Millennial Effect (BisNow National Edition, July 11, 2014)
Are today’s urban developers over relying on the tastes of millennials? 64% of the 500 readers who responded to our recent poll think developers are catering too much to Millennials. Many responded that Millennials’ tastes will change, especially when they have kids.
Millennials Drive Decision-Making (Globe St. Real Estate Forum, June 2014)
They may not yet represent a majority of office-using employees, but it’s predicted that they will by 2030. Certainly in the key growth sectors—notably the TAMI segment, comprised of technology, advertising, media and information businesses—they’re the workers that employers want to attract and retain. “They” are millennials, and their priorities largely drive today’s decision-making on office space, on the part of both tenants and the building owners that bring them in.
For millennials, food isn’t just food. It’s community. (The Washington Post)
Robert Giaimo, co-founder of Silver Diner, made the decision to revamp his small chain for a generation that was looking for more than an all-day pancake breakfast and a bottomless cup of coffee. Called just Silver the restaurant will feature outdoor communal tables, a full-service bar (with“spirited” shakes), LED lighting and finishes of marble, zinc and wood. Just as important, Silver will be located where the millennials live and work: in a high-density neighborhood, not the expansive ’burbs.
Millennials want meaning, not just Nerf guns, at work (Upstart Business Journal)
To attract the millennial generation, entrepreneurs have to give workers something to be passionate about, say experts.
D.C. reigns as the best destination for millennial talent (Washington Business Journal)
Graduation season is nearly upon us. That means a job hunt is next for many, and Washington is the place where they should look. D.C. is the best city for recent college graduates, according to a new analysis of the 50 largest cities in the country by NerdWallet.
Career Coach: advise for working with millennials (The Washington Post)
A look at what millennials want from the workplace, challenges with different generations, and best advice for retaining millennials.
Clarendon Named Washington’s ‘Best Neighborhood for Millennials’ (ARL now)
Clarendon has been named the Washington, D.C. area’s “best neighborhood for millennials.” The website looked at factors like median rent, median income, the percentage of the population between 25 and 34 years old, and the percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
The confident generation: Millennial women are changing what work looks like (The Washington Post)
They are not the fretting, overstressed women we’ve been reading about for 20 or 30 years. They are as large or larger in number, better-educated, ambitious, optimistic and determined to enjoy a more well-rounded life than their mothers’ generations.
Study Reveals Surprising Facts About Millennials In The Workplace (Forbes)
By 2025, millennials, also known as Gen Y or those born in the 80’s and 90’s, will make up the majority of the workforce. But, are they truly ready for the workforce? And is the workforce ready for them?
From high maintenance to high productivity (Martin)
Born between 1978 and 1988, Yers are the blunt, techno-savvy, contradictory children of Baby Boomers who believe education is a key to success, technology is as transparent as the air, diversity is a given, and social responsibility is a business imperative.
Accenture’s high-tech, flexible office space designed with millennials in mind (The Washington Post)
When Accenture chats up millennial generation workers at recruiting events, the consulting giant has noticed that a few similar themes crop up.
Knocking down walls: How Gen Y is transforming office space (Finance & Commerce)
When the Minneapolis office of Cassidy Turley designed its new office space in the IDS Center, it threw out the old, traditional model where employees were assigned workspace based on their level in the organization.
Attract Gen Y Employees with a Great Office Space (Free Enterprise)
Studies show that by creating an environmentally friendly office, you have a better chance of attracting talented members of Generation Y to your workforce.
‘Generation Y’ set to transform office life (CNN)
It could be out with old meeting rooms and in with new social spaces, as Generation Y is set to transform the way we work in the next 10 years.
Gen Y and the Incredible Shrinking Office (Mindflash)
Gen Y’s familiarity and comfort with communication tech and location independence may end up shrinking the office.
Millennials: Why They Bike (Triple Pundit)
Driving and car ownership is declining, and younger generations, most notably Millennials, are embracing alternate transportation. Bikes are cool again and cities are catching on that bike lanes can attract a younger workforce.
Gen Y Flexible Workplace (Cisco)
Cisco reduces costs and attracts Gen Y employees with new workspaces and work styles.
How Millennials Move: The Car-Less Trends (National Association of Realtors)
Millennials own fewer cars and drive less than their predecessors. They’d rather walk, bike, car-share, and use public transportation — and want to live where that’s all easy.
Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young People Are Driving Less and What It Means for Transportation Policy (Frontier Group)
The trend toward reduced driving among young people is likely to persist.
8 Indisputable Reasons Why We Don’t Need Offices (Forbes)
Looking back a decade or so ago it was absolutely essential to have an office, or more likely, a cubicle. That’s where we had meetings, saw our coworkers, and just got work done. But today do we really need corporate offices?
Why You Hate Working (The New York Times)
The way we’re working isn’t working. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a job, you’re probably not very excited to get to the office in the morning, you don’t feel much appreciated while you’re there, you find it difficult to get your most important work accomplished, amid all the distractions, and you don’t believe that what you’re doing makes much of a difference anyway.
Time to Go Home (Santa Clara University)
Although amenities are always presented as perks, they raise a question: Don’t these people want to go home? Many Americans are beginning to resent the encroachment of work into every moment of their waking (and sometimes sleeping) lives.
2014 Workplace Trends (Sodexo)
Sodexo’s experts in quality of life and human capital solutions used mixed research methods to understand and highlight the trends that are affecting the workplace and its consumers. Based on our findings, in this year’s report you’ll find a diverse array of workplace and employee quality of life factors represented; these include trends related to the built environment, technological advances and the workforce.
Making the Connection: Environment, Work, and Wellness (Whitney Austin Gray, Cannon Design)
Whitney Austin Gray’s presentation given at the Arlington Future Office Market Task Force meeting on May 22, 2014.
Standing desks sit well with employees (The Washington Post)
Sales for the wide platform unit that rests on top of any desk and easily glides up to a raised position have been in the “tens of thousands,” according to McCann. The Varidesk can be spotted at the National Institutes of Health, the United Nations Secretariat, the Federal Reserve Bank and an endless list of corporations.
Focus on Focus (Gensler)
Research has substantiated that open plan workplaces have indeed helped organizations and individuals achieve these goals. However, it now seems that we are at a tipping point in the open plan workplace trend, with concerns and important questions about these environments beginning to emerge.
Creativity-Charged Cafes (Trend Hunter)
The BASE camp by Nest One is a technology-focused innovation center, channelling the power of creativity and communication. The hybrid space functions as a cafe, mobile shop, workstation, meeting space and event hall.
The Transition from Closed Offices to Open Plan (Jan Johnson)
Issues and recommendations associated with moving workers from closed offices to open plan offices.
New Ways of Working (Facilities Net)
Several shifts in the ways in which organizations work are driving the move away from cubicles. For starters, employees’ ability to collaborate has become key to many organizations’ success.
JLL-backed startup to focus on life after the coworking stage (Washington Business Journal)
Coworking appears to be the hottest thing these days in the tech and commercial real estate industries, driven by a younger generation of workers looking for office space with fewer strings with attached. But what happens to those companies once they’ve developed beyond the infancy stage?
It’s Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting is Fast and On the Rise (The New York Times)
The annual survey last year by the Society for Human Resource Management found a greater increase in the number of companies planning to offer telecommuting in 2014 than those offering just about any other new benefit.
Millennials’ workplace pushback (USA Today)
A new study stays a majority of Gen-Y workers prefer a workplace setting over telecommuting.
10 Ways Millennials Are Creating The Future Of Work (Forbes)
Millennials are going to make major shifts in corporations over the next decade and most people aren’t ready for the amount of change that’s coming.
Gen-Y Workforce and Workplace Are Out Of Sync (Forbes)
How aligned is the vision of work for today’s world leaders with the vision for their Generation Y peers?
The Way We’ll Work (TIME)
Here are 10 ways your job will change. In fact, it already has.
Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros (GWU School of Business)
Metro Washington D.C. continues to be the national model for walkable urban growth. Future growth in the area will be at the expense of drivable suburban locations relying on the general growth of the region, which is currently down as a result of federal cutbacks.
Crystal City Office Building Will Convert to Residential (InsideNoVa)
Arlington County officials appear ready to fast-track a developer’s proposal to repurpose the Crystal Plaza 6 office building for residential use. Under the proposal, the building would require little in the way of exterior changes. Instead, the 156,670 square feet of office space would be redeveloped into about 250 dwelling units.
Pentagon Centre flip-flop: Owner shelves office plans in favor of upfront multifamily (WBJ)
The owner of the big box-anchored Pentagon Centre at the heart of Pentagon City is making a 180-degree turn as to its planned redevelopment. Instead of office first and then residential, as was approved by the Arlington County Board in July 2008, Kimco Realty Corp. has submitted a revised, preliminary site plan to build two residential buildings first, one virtually atop the Pentagon City Metro Station, then two office buildings, and finally a hotel over the next 40 years.
JBG Switches Out Office for More Residential in North Bethesda (BethesdaNow)
Developer JBG is switching out an approved office building and proposing an additional 80-unit residential building at part two of its North Bethesda Market project.
The Rise of Innovation Districts (Brookings)
As city governments look to attract more business, they are coming up with novel ways to entice new firms. One method people affiliated with municipal governments, universities and companies use to spur economic growth is to promote neighborhoods that foster development in business and technology.
Cities Promote Innovation Districts for Economic Development (Governing)
These cities come in three models: the “anchor-plus” model, where districts coexist with nearby universities research institutions, the “re-imagined urban areas” model, where former industrial and urban districts are targeted for development, and the “urbanized science park” model, where suburbs and exurbs are built up with new amenities.
The Colossal Expectations of D.C.’s Newest Metro Line (CityLab)
“Tysons is not just an edge city; it’s the edge city,” says Leinberger, using the phrase popularized by Joel Garreau’s 1991 book, Edge City. When that book came out, Tysons “was the go-to location, and downtown Washington and Arlington [Virginia] were at the bottom of that list. Now they’ve switched spots. Downtown and Arlington get the highest office rents; twice as much as Tysons,” he says. “That’s where the market wants to be: in these walkable, urban locations.”
Contrasting Trends (Virginia Business)
The latest list of the 50 fasted-growing companies in Virginia shows some contrasting trends.
What’s wrong with Rosslyn: How to fix 50 years of planning errors (Washington Business Journal)
It was site plan No. 1, the starting gun to Rosslyn’s stunning shift from tank farms, seedy bar and light industrial properties to, instead, an automobile-oriented concrete jungle of undistinguished midrise office buildings linked pedestrian bridges.
Other Place Nipping at Heels of Arlington’s Transit-Oriented Development (Mobility Lab)
Arlington has long been a national and local leader of transit-oriented development (TOD). Now, many other places are patterning themselves based on the traits Arlington perfected; that is, relatively dense and containing mixed-use, walkable, and bikeable neighborhoods that emphasize transportation choices. Meanwhile, with more localities essentially “doing Arlington,” it is ironic that forces within the county want to retreat from what made Arlington great in the first place.
The Future of Rosslyn (Robert Bellinger, ASB Real Estate Investments)
Rosslyn is no longer just the sleepy suburb of Washington. It’s not just an office destination. People want to plant their roots here.
Tysons 2.0 begins to take shape (The Washington Post)
Even in Tysons, the mall business isn’t the future, at least not without access to public transit and people working and living within walking distance. Here, a look at Macerich’s $500 million project, the first Silver-Line accessible high-rise development in Tysons.
The Urban Shift in the U.S. Start-Up Economy, in One Chart (The Atlantic Cities)
San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood; Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Kendall Square; Lower Manhattan: These are the dense, walkable neighborhoods that have become the new hubs of America’s tech scene, as the center of gravity for venture investment and start-up activity shifts from suburbs to urban centers.
CBRE: Silver Line worth 200,000 square feet of office demand a year (Washington Business Journal)
A new analysis by CBRE Group Inc. concludes the 11.4-mile expansion of Metrorail will drive population and employment growth and produce an average of 200,000 square feet of net office demand annually through 2017 in Tysons Corner, according to Virginia Business.
Regionalism key to economic growth, business leaders say (Washington Business Journal)
Greater Washington is transitioning to an economy that cannot rely on the federal government for growth.
Delta Associates forecasts rising pressure for D.C. area landlords (Washington Business Journal)
D.C. area landlords will need a “new playbook” to deal with some dramatic shifts in the market including a change in how tenants use space.
The Incredible Shrinking Office Market (Washington Business Journal)
A growing chorus of real estate and economic experts say the region is undergoing a profound shift that threatens to strip away the relative invulnerability that has insulated Washington from the extreme peaks and valleys most other office markets face.
The Truth About D.C.’s Growing Knowledge-Based Economy (Atlantic Cities)
Government remains the central pivot point of the region’s knowledge economy, stimulating a wide range of direct and indirect spinoff jobs.
The Disruption Machine: What the Gospel of Innovation Gets Wrong (The New Yorker)
Disruptive innovation as the explanation for how change happens has been subject to little serious criticism… partly because disrupters ridicule doubters by charging them with fogyism, as if to criticize a theory of change were identical to decrying change; and partly because, in its modern usage, innovation is the idea of progress jammed into a criticism-proof jack-in-the-box.
Arguing About the Truth of Disruption (The New York Times)
The biggest advocates of disruption would likely argue that disruptive innovations eventually replace outmoded ideas with better, or at least more popular, ones. [But]… it’s possible to imagine some disruptions destroying existing industries and replacing them with nothing at all. The gospel of “move fast and break things” might just leave some things broken.
Maryland poaches another start-up (The Washington Post)
Maryland has lured yet another technology start-up away from a neighbor — this time poaching from the nation’s capital.
Epic Fails of the Startup World (The New Yorker)
We live in the age of the startup. It’s never been easier to build a product and start a company. But there’s a catch: starting a company may be easier, but making it a success isn’t. Competition is fierce, profits are scarce, and venture capitalists aren’t generous when it comes to later stages of funding.
Washington area pops onto tech radar as alternative to Silicon Valley (The Washington Post)
In 2011, the executives of Savi Technology decided to ditch California and move their headquarters to Virginia to cut costs. Not only did Savi executives find enough engineers who they say are fully capable of designing the company’s wireless tracking devices, which are used to monitor equipment all over the world, but they also found a better fit in the Washington area’s more stable workforce.
Here’s why the GSA wants to build a sprawling cybersecurity campus in Greater Washington (Washington Business Journal)
The federal government is putting together plans for a sprawling campus devoted to cybersecurity somewhere in the D.C. region that would bring together hundreds of industry experts under one roof.
Big-Time Partner For DC Startup (Bisnow)
A year ago, TransitScreen was a fledgling startup competing to be “the next great idea” in a Arlington, Va., business competition. It just signed a strategic partnership that takes it to a new level.
Will Tech Go Vertical? (Bisnow)
We believe that question has been soundly answered by Salesforce’s record-breaking 714k SF lease at the future 61- story Transbay Tower in San Francisco, the new landmark of that city.
Disruption Corp.’s Paul Singh launches N.Va. venture fund for established tech firms (The Washington Post)
Seven years ago, Paul Singh left the Washington suburbs for Silicon Valley, where he built a start-up investment empire that helped hundreds of technology ventures get started. Now, he has come back to Northern Virginia, hoping to replicate that success, but with a twist.
With TechShop, the maker movement begins its rise in Washington (The Washington Post)
Economists and policy wonks are increasingly predicting that manufacturing, from start-ups and creative entrepreneurs, will become an important part of urban economies. If making things is going to become big business again in Washington, ground zero may be a shop class playground for adults that will open in Crystal City this month.
District plans fund, ‘technology corridor’ under ‘Digital DC’ initiative (Washington Business Journal)
D.C. plans to establish a new fund to aid tech startups and designate a stretch of Northwest D.C. as a “technology corridor” under its Digital DC initiative.
Divide between incubators, accelerators blurs as governments look to assist entrepreneurs (The Washington Post)
The number of government-backed business incubators and accelerators has grown as public officials look for ways to support entrepreneurs, spur innovation and bolster their local economies.
Vornado to put $10M in Paul Singh’s Crystal Tech Fund (Washington Business Journal)
Vornado Realty Trust is investing $10 million in venture capitalist Paul Singh’s Crystal Tech Fund, a planned $50 million venture fund aimed at “post-seed” startups
Vornado turns to tech to help transform Crystal City (Washington Business Journal)
Vornado Realty Trust is turning to the D.C. area tech community to help it fill millions of square feet of vacant space created by the Pentagon’s 2005 Base Realignment and Closure plan and other seismic shifts that have rocked the region’s commercial real estate market over the past few years.
Denver Tech Companies: ‘The No. 1 Thing They Want is Bike Lanes’ (People for Bikes)
The single biggest obstacle to recruiting tech workers to Denver is its lack of good bike lanes, the head of the city’s downtown business association said this month.