The heads of real estate for some of the hottest tech companies in our backyard (and in the world) talked strategy at Bisnow's S.F. Creative Office and Tech event at Hotel Nikko this morning.
Head of global real estate for LinkedIn Armen Vartanian, a panelist, tells us interior renderings for 222 2nd should be ready by March. Why he plans to plant a gym inside, instead of sending employees to a neighborhood treadmill: Just as collaboration occurs around a dinner table, the gym is another avenue to collaborate between team members and promote a sense of camaraderie. He says the company culture encourages transparency, and its real estate's no different. LinkedIn says no to cubes and offices and yes to floor-to-ceiling windows, benching systems and clear conference rooms. He goes back seven years at the company, with just 30k SF and 150 employees. Now it's doing some of the largest deals it's ever done, with a global portfolio encompassing millions of square feet. The key is its culture hasn't changed dramatically, Armen says.
Global head of real estate for Dropbox Chris Coleman is no stranger to helping startups grow: at age 28 he was with CNN when it was just that, and then Google. He hopes to make Dropbox bigger and badder. The team is currently devising a "wish list" for 333 and 345 Brannan, and one line item is solving the "headphone problem," which can make employees unapproachable. That means figuring out how to break down noise from one department to another. The Brannan space, which hopes to debut next year, will help alleviate overcrowding at China Basin, where some of their collaborative spaces have been filled with desks.
A culture of quiet is rising, says Gensler principal Lisa Bottom; as the result of densification, interruptions are everywhere and it's harder to get individual work done. According to a study by her firm, tenants are screaming for places to focus and a "shh" library atmosphere. Food is also a big request, and now there are commercial kitchens in every office (the '80s days of kitchens with a coffee maker and vending machine are over). It's expensive to live here, and Millennials living with multiple roommates are missing a refuge to cook. Work has become the new home and the office is the new living room, she notes, with a lot of meetings spent breaking bread. More from our panelists tomorrow.
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