How CP Group and Gensler Reimagined the Modern Office with worCPlaces
As the needs and preferences of modern professionals and organizations continue to evolve, office trends are following suit. To keep pace with the changing landscape of office design, CP Group collaborated with world-renowned architecture, design, and planning firm Gensler to create an innovative new offering in the office space market.
With a focus on humanistic design, worCPlaces provides its members with the sophistication and infrastructure of a traditional office space while delivering the flexible terms, community, and service of the traditional coworking model.
But what does it take to create an office environment unlike any other?
To find out, we spoke to two of the driving minds behind worCPlaces’ design philosophy: Lucas Roberts, Design Manager and Senior Associate at Gensler Atlanta, and Sheryl Blake, Senior Designer at CP Group.
What was the scope of the collaboration between CP Group and Gensler for worCPlaces?
Lucas Roberts: With worCPlaces, CP Group tasked Gensler with creating flexible spaces that prioritized occupants' wellness and business needs. The project also needed to be scalable so that as businesses grow, their space could grow with them. The design and layout needed to feel fresh, incorporating furniture and technology to accommodate all work styles.
How does the approach to designing a flexible office space differ from that of a traditional workspace?
Lucas Roberts: When designing a flexible office space, it's important to consider the culture of the space and how occupants will interact with each other.
Health and wellness are a big part of that, and Gensler focused on incorporating subtle yet powerful wellness features to benefit occupants without distracting them with excess signage or instruction.
By creating a seamless flow throughout the space to avoid congestion, installing unobtrusive air purifiers, and utilizing durable materials that can be cleaned with ease, we made it possible for occupants to remain focused on their business without worrying about the spread of germs.
Sheryl Blake: “Resi-mercial” is a term coined a few years ago to describe the idea of fusing commercial and residential together and adding the emphasis on flexibility of movement, comfort, and personal convenience. As a result of the recent pandemic, people found themselves adjusting to working from home and continue to seek this life-work balance within the workplace.
CPG has embraced this concept by enhancing our outlay of accommodations. We feel, at a minimum, individual areas within worCPlaces should:
1. Differentiate themselves from one another.
2. Prioritize the needs and experiences of the people who will be using the space.
3. Consider factors like comfort, safety, and ease of use, as well as aesthetic considerations like color, lighting, and materials.
4. Provide flexible and private office spaces that promote collaboration, community, and comfort.
5. Utilize co-working spaces to provide a flexible and affordable alternative to traditional office space, which can be costly, rigid, and isolating. With coworking, a tenant can choose a membership that fits their needs, from hot desks to private offices, and access a range of amenities, such as high-speed internet, printing, meeting rooms, and kitchen facilities.
We are achieving a great deal of success in designing comfortable, flexible spaces which gives one a fresh approach to daily tasks and promotes networking and creativity.
How does the design of a flexible workspace influence the way people work? What’s the correlation between flexible workplace design and professional outcomes?
Lucas Roberts: The pandemic only accelerated the need for offices to adapt. It's now crucial that offices optimize their seating, AV systems, and amenity spaces to accommodate different work styles, hybrid meetings, and more balanced lifestyles.
These features allow employees to customize their workday in a way that makes them the most efficient and effective.
Flexible workspaces that include these features allow companies to make decisions about their occupancy and hybrid policies more quickly than a traditional space, giving them the freedom to focus more on their business.
Sheryl Blake: At CPG, we focus on the interplay between the details within the office environment and the experience of working within that space. Our worCPlaces Philosophy centers around the idea that a well-designed coworking space can help you stay focused and motivated throughout the day. Comfortable seating, natural light, and ergonomic furniture are just a few examples of elements that can contribute to a productive work environment.
Humanistic design can also drive creativity. By incorporating elements like art, plants, and natural materials, a coworking space can create a stimulating environment that encourages new ideas, fresh perspectives, and visual interest to inspire conversation.
How did Gensler and CP Group approach the design of worCPlaces to accommodate the needs of a wide array of businesses and professionals?
Sheryl Blake: CPG executes research to identify the work sectors within each of our worCPlaces locations. We identify the types of businesses that may use the space and the industries that are prominent within the area. While there are challenges in planning for everyone, we have opted to be more specific with each location based on the demographics of its local market.
Considerations driving design are accessibility: proximity to public transportation, access to major highways, parking, and convenient access to dining and shopping amenities.
We consider neighborhoods and surrounding businesses and industries that promote networking opportunities and potential partnerships to drive access to valuable resources and connections for growth. We lean toward an area that welcomes and supports all individuals and has a commitment to diversity and inclusion since we offer programs or events that celebrate the different communities within the location. With that in mind, we strive to create programs and events within our worCPlaces that celebrate diversity where residents are immersed in a social environment that makes you feel celebrated as an individual.
Safety and Security are major considerations. This is especially important for those who may be working late or leaving the co-working space during off-hours. We place worCPlaces and co-working spaces in well-lit areas and have security measures in place to provide added peace of mind for those working before and after normal business hours.
Lucas Roberts: Within the spaces themselves, we also focused on creating universal modules that can be interchanged to suit the specific needs of the end user.
While these spaces are pre-built, each individual and company can work in the fashion they need or desire to.
Quality workplaces are places where people want to work. How did CP Group and Gensler create work environments where people want to be?
Lucas Roberts: These spaces are designed to enable and enhance connection, communication, and collaboration while allowing for optimal focus zones.
People want to have it all within reach.
Every suite, no matter the size, contains specific spaces for individuals and groups to engage in one of the four work modes: focus, collaborate, socialize, or learn.
Sheryl Blake: We work very hard to make our tenants feel welcome within our worCPlaces concept.
We are strategic to ensure a sense of order when you enter a worCPlaces location, you're not walking into a blast of light, energy, and noise. We intentionally design a sensible progression throughout the entire space. For example, we place high levels of noise in the back of the workspace. We strategically place pods of comfortable seating and natural light to help boost productivity as well as quiet more dimly lighted areas for relaxation.
What are the needs of today’s businesses and professionals? What is the role of the office in a post-pandemic world? And how did these factors influence the design of worCPlaces?
Lucas Roberts: Early humans thrived because of collaboration, realizing that together, they achieved more than they could individually.
We are hardwired to seek places for togetherness.
In modern times, businesses have relied on office spaces and local servers to tether information. However, the pandemic taught us that we can untether and access data from anywhere, at any time.
The worCPlaces are designed to provide safe and functional environments that fulfill our basic need for connection while removing friction from newer methods of information-sharing enabled by technology.
worCPlaces leans heavily into the concept of wellness and enhancing the physical health of work environments for professionals. How does the design of the spaces support this?
Lucas Roberts: We introduced several changes to better address the physical health of worCPlaces, all of which center around limiting the potential for contamination. We created high-occupancy meeting rooms located near the entry of the suite and implemented loop circulation in the suite so the flow of people can mitigate cross-contamination. We also increased air exchanges and allowed for more fresh air in the space, and the material we selected is fully cleanable.
Sheryl Blake:
1. Natural Light: Natural light is essential for creating a pleasant work environment. If possible, choose a space with plenty of windows and incorporate artificial lighting that mimics the natural daylight cycle.
2. Plants: Plants can help purify the air and create a calming atmosphere. Consider incorporating plants throughout the coworking space to bring some of the outdoors inside.
At CP Group, we have a significant impact on environmental sustainability by collaborating with suppliers who consider how our tenants live, work, and play within their surroundings. Design works extensively with the CPG Director of ESG to thoughtfully create sustainability standards for the products we use in our spaces, from furniture and technology down to the cleaning products approved within our maintenance schedules.
Physical and mental wellness has a significant impact on both personal and professional performance. When you're feeling good mentally, you know your body is going to respond accordingly. We use this guiding principle to design our worCPlaces to help reduce stress, anxiety, and burn-out.
We incorporate as much natural light as possible and use only live plants to leverage biophilic design and bring the outside freshness into the building wherever feasible. We believe that being able to enjoy the outdoors is important for well-being and good health and bringing the outdoors inside adds a sense of continuity between the spaces.
Our goal was to create spaces that wow our members—places where they truly want to be. We spend so much of our lives working that we deserve to have a good time doing it and this is why we created worCPlaces.
If you are in search of an innovative workspace that aligns with the ways you wish to work and live, we invite you to take a tour of worCPlaces Lakeside. Contact us today or book a tour now.
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