October 2015 — Office Properties Quarterly —
Page 19
Design
“H
ow we spend our days is,
of course, how we spend
our lives,” said author
Annie Dillar.
The trend toward work-
place collaboration, transparency
and informality that accompanies
the new generation of office workers
largely eliminated the once ubiqui-
tous private offices
ringing the edges of
hermetically sealed
commercial office
buildings. This old
news is well docu-
mented.
But, here in Colo-
rado, at the con-
fluence of several
simultaneous cul-
tural shifts, namely
mobile technol-
ogy, we are seeing
the integration of
the resort lifestyle
and an emphasis
on wellness every-
where we live, work
and play. This has
made a huge impact
in the design of
the office building
envelope becoming
more transparent,
permeable and,
sometimes, disap-
pearing completely.
From floor-to-ceiling
vision glass to oper-
able facades giving
way to natural ven-
tilation, terraces and balconies, savvy
designers and developers are giving
Colorado office occupants more visual
and physical access to the outside
world.
Need.
“Rediscovering the intuitively
obvious” is what Terrapin Bright Green
calls this renewed awareness of our
innate need for nature. In the com-
pany’s white paper, “14 Patterns of
Biophilic Design,”Terrapin articulates
this human-nature relationship and
related opportunities for designers
and developers. This rediscovery of
our need for outdoor environments is
influencing nearly every project sector
in Colorado.
Most of our local multifamily resi-
dential projects incorporate a rich
assortment of resort-style outdoor
environments. As Colorado’s higher-
education institutions evolve, outdoor
amenity offerings at residence halls
are rivaling those of the hospitality
industry. And thankfully in our work-
places, where we collectively spend
most of our days, we are demanding
to be let out!
Demand.
“Nearly all of my prospec-
tive Denver office tenants are focused
on what kind and how much outdoor
space is available; of secondary con-
cern seems to be what their interior
office is like,” said Newmark Grubb
Knight Frank Executive Managing
Director Tim Harrington.
While these outdoor spaces seem
more important to companies with
collaborative workforces like those
in the technology, design and global
business sectors, Harrington is seeing
the trend infiltrate even the most tra-
ditional banking and law firms.
For example, Denver law firm Moye
White LLP is replacing some windows
with a series of automated roll-up
doors, allowing employees direct
access to an expansive sixth-floor ter-
race.
Randy Nichols, president and CEO
of The Nichols Partnership and devel-
oper of Boulder’s PearlWest office
and retail project, also observes this
same demand among a diverse group
of tenants. Both traditional capital
investment firms and creative tech
companies have scrambled to lease
space in PearlWest, which features an
extensive rooftop terrace with views
of the Flatirons and multiple balconies
on each floor.
Hines Director Gordon Stoffer said
that providing outdoor terraces at
their newest office projects is a great
amenity and selling point as they are
“hugely helpful in distinguishing our
projects from the competition.”
Value.
In the past, exterior spaces
might have been designed but never
realized due to concerns about cost,
complicated detailing, water infiltra-
tion, etc. Now that office users are
demanding outdoor spaces, how are
developers justifying the cost?
Zeppelin Development provides
functional interiors unburdened by
trendy finishes, leaving more room in
the proforma for the inclusion of oper-
able walls and outdoor amenities, said
Kyle Zeppelin, a principal at Zeppelin
Development. At Freight, the adaptive
reuse of an industrial building, Zep-
pelin priced both a standard store-
front and glazed garage doors during
design; the garage doors priced better.
Nichols also embraced the raw
architecture of exposed concrete
floors and ceiling utilities in Galva-
nize and the Nichols Building project.
But he doesn’t find cost savings in
that design approach, noting that a
well-organized ceiling of round ducts,
conduit, lighting and sprinkler pip-
ing, along with finished and sealed
concrete floors, are as expensive as
covering the messier versions of these
functional elements with finishes.
Instead, Nichols said the elimination
of a formal office lobby and tangible
marketing advantages are his meth-
ods of moving money toward outdoor
amenities.
Nature of Nature
With Colorado’s mild climate, it’s
possible to enjoy outside spaces for
much of the year. But working out-
doors can have its downside, from
glare on the laptop screen, to flutter-
ing papers, to the distracting sounds
of the city during a conference call.
It is the designer’s imperative to con-
sider numerous factors when plan-
ning and designing functional outdoor
office spaces: height, orientation,
views, wind, shade, materials and fur-
nishings, acoustics and technology.
Integrating landscaped areas into
outdoor office spaces is not only
aesthetically pleasant, but also can
make exiting strategies simpler. Large
balconies and terraces are labeled
as assembly occupancies by build-
ing code, driving up the theoretical
occupancy load and potentially forc-
ing larger or additional exit ways.
One method for avoiding this added
cost involves reducing the occupi-
able square footage and therefore the
number of occupants by integrating
raised planting areas.
Programming Outside In
How do these outdoor ameni-
ties influence indoor programming
and design? Because they’re often
designed early into a speculative core
and shell project, how does their pres-
ence shape the later planning of the
commercial interiors?
Connecting prefunction space or
informal gathering areas to an out-
door space via an operable facade
expands the programming potential;
opening the wall creates a larger
space for larger events. At the Nichols
Building, an expansive eastern terrace
is connected to open, informal seating
and a coffee bar, creating the oppor-
tunity for a seamless indoor-outdoor
event space for much of the year.
Outdoor office environments do not
need to be constantly occupied to be
considered successful.Well-designed
and executed spaces improve the
experience of working inside. For
example, working near transparent or
open walls that open onto a butterfly-
filled veranda can transform our days
and, maybe, our work.
In Zeppelin’s Gauge building, closed-
office functions like conference rooms
are located near the central core, leav-
ing the perimeter of the floor plate
for open offices with access to the
operable walls (overhead doors) and
terraces. Every occupant has direct
access to views, light and the terrace
amenity.
Forest City Stapleton asked us to
incorporate upper-level terraces in
the company’s proposed Central Park
Station office building, which is being
studied for feasibility in the dense
transit-oriented development planned
for the RTD’s Central Park Station stop
on the east corridor light-rail line.
Several types of outdoor spaces have
been included in the proposed design:
a second-floor terrace overlooking the
landscaped plaza below; a shaded top-
floor terrace commanding western
mountain views; and more intimate
balconies on each floor near confer-
ence rooms.
“It’s all about the underwriting of
the amenity,” said Jim Chrisman, a
senior vice president with Forest City
Stapleton. “Can we afford to do it?”
If connecting with nature adds
health, productivity and delight to our
days, how can we afford not to?
s
Terry Willis, AIA,
LEED AP
Principal, KTGY
Group Inc., Denver
Terra Mazzeo,
LEED AP
Design director,
KTGY Group Inc.,
Denver
Randy Nichols and Terra Mazzeo on the Galvanize 2.0 terrace at The Nichols Building
overlooking the Platte River, Commons Park and downtown Denver.
Photo courtesy Zeppelin Development and Dynia Architects
Rooftop terraces at Gauge
Photo courtesy KTGY
Outdoor spaces in Central Park Station office building feasibility study for Forest City
Stapleton.
