Here’s Rob Speyer, president and co-CEO of Tishman Speyer – “one of the leading owners, developers, fund managers and operators of real estate in the world” – at Thursday’s general session of the Urban Land Institute in New York:
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Global Cities: The Developer’s Perspective from Rob Speyer
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Among the sociological trends Speyer said the real estate community should heed:
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- Despite predictions to the contrary, the internet has actually deepened a desire for face-to-face interaction and connectivity. Commercial and residential projects where people can meet either intentionally or by chance and build community through common spaces will succeed. Speyer differentiated between “happy” and “unhappy” buildings—those with workers and residents satisfied with their workspace, the mix of nearby amenities, and access to transit, and those that may be architectural wonders but which have tenants who want to leave.
- Office workers want to work near each other in open spaces that foster collaboration; demand for office space with discrete areas like cubicles or individual offices is in decline. (Interior walls are the “dinosaurs” of office buildings and “may soon be extinct,” he said.)
- Sustainability involves more than obtaining LEED certification and acquiring solar panels and other green infrastructure for a property. It can also be achieved by building dense, transit-oriented, mixed-use development to eliminate the need among tenants for automobiles, the worst emitters of greenhouse gases.
- The technology sector will continue to be the economic driver in cities around the globe. Younger tech workers want to live and work in cities and have no desire for what earlier generations aspired to—a single-family home in the suburbs, a car, and a commute.
- The disparity between the rich and poor in cities is growing. Cities have long been the destination of working-class individuals and families who aspire to a better life, but they are becoming less and less affordable to these households. Private development has a major role to play in expanding affordable and workforce housing options so that low- and moderate-income people can be upwardly mobile, Speyer said. “If we cut that dream off, we are cutting ourselves off.”
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I am struck – again – by the disconnect between what we hear from urban leaders elsewhere, notably developers like Speyer, and what many of our leaders here seem to believe – especially those who promote Motordom in the name of economic growth, efficiency and goods movement.
This spring, politicians who are not pushing hard for the passage of the transportation referendum must explain why, given the evidence and trends elsewhere, they don’t care about well-paying jobs, sustainable growth and inclusive prosperity.
“Office workers want to work near each other in open spaces that foster collaboration; demand for office space with discrete areas like cubicles or individual offices is in decline.”
Can we take this as reading that office *mangers* want to get rid of offices or cubicles? Actual workers have precious little input into these decisions and if they do, I highly doubt that they’d be signing up to be stuffed into a noise, distracting, chaotic room with no privacy or personal space. But it sure is cheaper!
I’ve spent much of the last two decades in open plan offices both downtown and in suburban business parks.
The philosophy around individual desks and meeting space has ebbed and flowed. When we had high cubicle walls we were expected to gather in the spaces between the cubes. When those walls between us came down the noise level went up and dedicated meeting rooms became necessary for large discussions and conference calls. Other companies have chosen to reject open plan entirely, build nothing but meeting rooms and put clusters of desks in them – no walls between teammates, but big walls between individual teams. Each layout has its advantages and disadvantages.
I have not noticed any trend away from private offices for senior managers. Those who spend a significant amount of time talking to people outside the company need to be able to shut their doors.
“Despite predictions to the contrary, the internet has actually deepened a desire for face-to-face interaction and connectivity.”
Spot on. When the drone operator takes off his visor at the end of the day, he’ll want a pleasant stroll to the village pub.
I can’t believe the number of people who still insist that every new technology – driverless cars are the latest – will make location irrelevant, while we live in the most connected time ever and under the highest urban/suburban price differential.
Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.