Architects improving work space

View Larger The Bottom Line Other Business Features Local Stories from ThisWeek By Tim Feran The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday February 19, 2014 8:07 AM

McGraw-Hill Education and Persistent Systems are in different industries, but the companies have something in common. Their Columbus offices have been redone recently to encourage workers to put their heads together.

The term were using is resilient work space, said Tim Hawk, president of WSA Studio and adjunct professor of architecture at Columbus State Community College, who designed the new offices for both educational publisher McGraw-Hill and technology company Persistent Systems.

Four decades ago, architects began designing open-plan offices for clients who sought increased employee communication and reduced renovation costs.

But there were downsides. In study after study, employees complained about distractions from noise and lack of privacy, two things that paradoxically would slow employee output even though the design was intended to speed productivity.

Today, architects have perfected open offices or resilient work spaces by taking into account past complaints. Thus, the trend is very much driven by employee needs, Hawk said.

In the past, jobs were focused on a singular task and could, therefore, be focused on one desk in one office.

The idea for many companies today is multi-tasking, working fluidly, working at home, working at lunch or not, Hawk said. As a result, workplace design needs to be more open and flexible and easily able to adapt. Were seeing this all over the place.

At McGraw-Hill Education, employees know that the industry is moving very rapidly, said Peter Cohen, president of the Columbus-based textbook giant. A century ago, the company would work with a state to meet educational requirements and then create a textbook that would be a benchmark for four years or more.

Today, new editions are published annually or even more often, and content is moving to digital media that can be updated on a continuing basis.

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Architects improving work space