Involving Tenants In Design Decisions In Creative Office

What are the best ways to design creative office space?

No matter the design, the most important aspect involves pleasing the client, experts say.

From a design perspective, creative office generally refers to a certain amount of rawness and industrial detailing, such as open ceilings for a nice sense of volume, HOK director of design, interiors Clay Pendergrast said at the recent Bisnow LA Creative Office event. A significant part of the floor is also usually concrete.

It is important to listen to clients to find out what they really want and need, speakers said.

"Ultimately, they may get the look they want, but it doesn't necessarily work for them acoustically from a sense of privacy and so forth," Pendergrast said.

It is about giving the tenants what they want and not what the developer wants to give them, according to HQ Development CEO Robert Herscu.

He focuses on the West side and Hollywood, opting for very high-end projects.

Ryda Development principal Daniel Neman said whatever the design is, the space needs to work for the tenant.

"It is also a place where people can come together and collaborate and have a community," Neman said.

Ryda also builds mixed-use buildings that encourage tenants to speak to each other since they have common areas for people to aggregate.

"The sense of involving people in creating the spaces is hugely important," Lendlease director of change, corporate regeneration and development Tim Allen said.

Allowing tenants to be able to personalize their spaces is vital, too, according to design experts.

Allen said he focuses his time on how to get people to make the most of the spaces they create.