Office creativity: Hammocks, slides, operable windows, rooftop bars — but ‘clean desks’ and private offices are returning

mpany San Diego’s flipflop culture is invading the corporate office scene, where “casual Friday” is yesterday’s company amenity.

To attract and retain those tech-savvy millennials (and sometimes their dogs), companies are dispensing with time-tested nostrums and offering amenity-rich spaces in the hope that the talent will choose them and stay content.

Mark Langan, vice president of the SCA Architecture firm, says companies have discovered that unlimited vacations, generous 401(k)’s, flexible work hours, free food and gym memberships aren’t enough.

“The physical environment has become a very integral and highly important factor in today’s life-balance society,” he writes in a three-page white paper outlining the new directions.

We’ve chosen four examples of the new — two new spaces and two repurposed ones — to illustrate the latest trends. Check them out — and then submit your resumes!

Viasat

Architect: SCA Architecture

The Carlsbad satellite communications company has designed a 23-acre, 587,000-square-foot addition to its campus in Bressi Ranch, off El Camino Real and Palomar Airport Road, to take its flipflop culture to the next level.

Now under construction, the first two of six buildings will be ready this fall and together with a four-acre park, the company’s 1,800 employees will have more places to eat, meet and play — even as their engineers find new ways to stay online on a cruise, in the air and on land.

Coolest features: One of the existing buildings already features a slide between the third and second floor . Volleyball and basketball courts are heavily used on the west campus. The new campus will feature a 10,000-square-foot atrium, shaded inside with a grove of trees, and a food hall with six food stations. The park will include hammocks, billiards played with your feet and tables for working and meeting in San Diego’s mild climate.

What didn’t make it: There’s no beach with a shallow pool as the architects had originally proposed. A treehouse was also axed, partly because it couldn’t meet handicap-accessible requirements. But there’s still going to be a footbridge in one building to go with a jungle theme Also missing will be an open office plan, an interior design popular in many other offices. Managers took note of engineers’ preference for quiet time and asked for small offices — along with collaborative spaces for impromptu meetings.

Missed opportunity: Three parking garages are planned but are not designed to be repurposed if autonomous vehicles take over the world and all-day parking demand drops off. Viasat wanted to keep the parking structures’ floor-to-ceiling heights low instead.

Company line: “We want our buildings to communicate who we are, that tech lives here,” said Bob Rota, vice president for facilities and security. “We care about our employees. We’re innovative. We solve difficult problems. What we try to do is create a myriad of indoor and outdoor spaces that really promote collaboration among our employees.”t

CBRE

Architect: Gensler

The commercial brokerage moved from a high-rise office building across La Jolla Village Drive last November into 33,000 square feet on the top floor of Westfield UTC’s new addition.

“They wanted to bring more of a hospitality, more of a residential feel into the buildout of the office space in a way that is functional as well,” said Gensler project architect Stacy Cannon.

Coolest features: Floor-to-ceiling sliding-glass doors can be opened to let in fresh air; the zoned air conditioning and heating systems automatically switch on or off accordingly. If workers feel too hot or cold, they either move to another desk or politely ask if anyone minds if the sliders can be adjusted or closed. Everyone gets standup desk and can pick anywhere to work. The open space plan includes plenty of phone rooms and conference spaces to accommodate private conversations and meetings. The reception area, called the “Heart,” resembles a hotel lobby and it’s where staff meetings and community events take place. It features a nine-screen media wall and cafe-style bar and living room seating.

The downside: Employees have to clear their desks before they leave and store personal items in lockers. Parking is unassigned in the mall garage but brokers and their clients can take advantage of the mall’s valet service.

Biggest surprise: This is CBRE’s first office to be located inside a regional mall and the colocation has become popular for personal shopping and lunch and dinner meetings. Shopping center developers always struggle with how to fill upper level tenant space — and CBRE’s presence could become a template for future mall renovations.

Company line: “It has been a game changer for our people and for our clients on a number of levels,” said managing director Paul Komadina. “It’s all about talent and recruiting and retaining talent. It’s all about access and amenities, places to eat, places to drink, places to buy goods and services. We’re in 1.5 million square feet of the best retail in the world of services and restaurants.”

Mindgruve workers are surrounded by exposed brick, hardwood floors and operable windows in a 130-year-old building.

(Roger Showley/U-T )

Pack Loft and Mindgruve

Two East Village brick buildings dating back decades capture the “cool” vibe of industrial warehouses desired by many tech companies.

Pack Loft at 701 Island Ave., the historic Bledsoe Warehouse built in 1925, offers 20,000 square feet in four stories. The top is occupied by the Noonan Lance law firm. The ground floor has been chosen as the site for an AnyTime Fitness gym.

“Exposed brick, hardwood floors — a lot of companies in San DIego want it, not just startups and techs,” said Ryan King, a broker Voit Real Estate Services, which along with Colliers International is marketing the building.

Anytime Fitness, a Minnesota-based neighborhood fitness franchiser with about 3,500 locations nationally, signed a 10-year, 4,000-square-foot lease with an opening projected by June.

“We’ve been looking for a place downtown for quite some time,” said Branden Bunker, a franchiser in Phoenix who owns a condo downtown and has several clubs already in San Diego County with more planned.

He said the Pack Loft space will be open 24 hours a day to appeal to swing-shift and night workers and include a wide range of equipment, personal trainers and group training. The monthly costs will run about $40 to $60.

Mindgruve, an Internet marketing company, occupies an even older building, built in 1888 at 627 Eighth Ave. and originally used as Germania Hall.

From 1908 to 1924 it was the Showley Brothers Candy Factory (full disclosure — my grandfather’s company occupied the building before building a new warehouse that’s now part of the Petco Park complex).

During World War II, it was the home of the Pacific Parachute Co., owned by a 28-year-old African-American entrepreneur, Howard “Skippy” Smith and bankrolled by Jack Benny’s sidekick, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson.” Murals of two Showley brothers, Smith and Anderson have been painted in four of the meeting booths in the building by artist Mike Maxwell.

Chad Robley, founder and CEO of Mindgruve, said he’s spent $4 million in renovations since late-2016 and is adding space in the basement by excavating extra height.

Besides the exposed brick, he’s created a rooftop meeting and entertainment space, where visitors can watch sports events on big-screen TVs and look out over the cityscape.

Fun, bizarre fact: During excavation, crews unearthed a human skull that was turned over to the police.

roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley