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workstations or the spacing between them.
In the meantime, major real estate services firms have begun to issue guidance for both landlord and tenant clients. For its part, Cushman & Wakefield recently unveiled a how-to guide for reopening the workplace that includes a “Safe Six” checklist covering everything from HVAC checks to controlling access to increased cleaning and reducing touchpoints.
The firm is looking to draw in part from its experience in China, where
it recently helped put some 1 million workers across 10,000 companies back to work as the country sought to emerge from its coronavirus outbreak earlier this year.
“The underlying understanding is that this is going to be a partnership with everybody, so not only a private-public partnership, but also at the individual building level,” said Judd, who is based in C&W’s East Rutherford office. “This is going to be a partnership between occupiers and owners because one has to be in tandem with the other.”
Brenda Nyce-Taylor, a principal with Gensler, said
clients are in
fact thinking
about long-
term solutions,
but have also
considered how
to quickly and
cost-effectively
address
employee concerns on day one of going back to work. Those short- term fixes include creating cleaning stations that can give employees more control over the environment, she said, while companies and
their professionals take more time to consider options such as self- sanitizing materials.
She also pointed to more immediate “interventions” such as removing the door to a vestibule leading into a bathroom, if it can be done while still providing privacy, rather than immediately installing automatic doors.
“I think they really don’t want to have kneejerk reactions by making significant changes that they may look back on and say, ‘Why did I make such a big impact either to my
space or from a cost perspective?’” said Nyce-Taylor, also a co-managing director of Gensler’s Morristown office. “So I think they’re cautious because they realize that, as we’re still learning about this disease,
we need to adjust and readjust in approach.”
Design experts also note that tenants may now have time on their side more than they previously thought, given advances in technology and the growing comfort level with remote working. To that end, some
companies may be more patient in waiting for better coronavirus treatments or even a vaccine.
“Certainly they want to get back,
but in the short term I believe that companies have gotten more adept
or used to working from home,”
said Lance Blake, president of Rotwein+Blake. “The technology
is there or they’re investing in the technology, and I think that right now, in their current footprints, they are going to spread out. I think they’re going to adapt from a management
point of view rather than from a design point of view at the moment.
Lance Blake
“I certainly
think that there will be changes in design philosophy
as we move forward, but that’s going to be an evolution.”
That won’t stop brokers and designers from having those conversations with owners and
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Brenda Nyce-Taylor
