An office building, also known as an office block or business center is a form of commercial building which contains spaces mainly

designed to be used for offices.

The primary purpose of an office building is to provide a workplace and working environment primarily for administrative and managerial
workers. These workers usually occupy set areas within the office building, and usually are provided with desks, PCs and other
equipment they may need within these areas.
An office building will be divided into sections for different companies or may be dedicated to one company. In either case, each
company will typically have a reception area, one or several meeting rooms, singular or open-plan offices, as well as toilets.
Many office buildings also have kitchen facilities and a staff room, where workers can have lunch or take a short break. Many office
spaces are now also serviced office spaces, which means that those occupying a space or building can share facilities.

Office spaces
The main purpose of an office environment is to support its occupants in performing their jobpreferably at minimum cost and to
maximum satisfaction. With different people performing different tasks and activities, however, it is not always easy to select the right
office spaces. To aid decision-making in workplace and office design, one can distinguish three different types of office spaces: work
spaces, meeting spaces and support spaces. For new, or developing businesses, remote satellite offices and project rooms, Serviced
Offices can provide a simple solution and provide all of the former types of space.
Work spaces[edit]
Work spaces in an office are typically used for conventional office activities such as reading, writing and computer work. There are nine
generic types of work space, each supporting different activities.

open office

team space

cubicle
Open office: An open work space for more than ten people, suitable for activities which demand frequent communication or routine
activities which need relatively little concentration
Team space: A semi-enclosed work space for two to eight people; suitable for teamwork which demands frequent internal
communication and a medium level of concentration
Cubicle: A semi-enclosed work space for one person, suitable for activities which demand medium concentration and medium
interaction

private office

shared office

team room
Private office: An enclosed work space for one person, suitable for activities which are confidential, demand a lot of concentration or
include many small meetings
Shared office: An enclosed work space for two or three people, suitable for semi-concentrated work and collaborative work in small
groups
Team room: An enclosed work space for four to ten people; suitable for teamwork which may be confidential and demands frequent
internal communication

study booth

work lounge

touch down
Study booth: An enclosed work space for one person; suitable for short-term activities which demand concentration or confidentiality
Work lounge: A lounge-like work space for two to six people; suitable for short-term activities which demand collaboration and/or allow
impromptu interaction
Touch down: An open work space for one person; suitable for short-term activities which require little concentration and low interaction
Meeting spaces[edit]
Meeting spaces in an office are typically used interactive processes, be it quick conversations or intensive brainstorms. There are six
generic types of meeting space, each supporting different activities.

small meeting room

large meeting room

Small meeting space
Small meeting room: An enclosed meeting space for two to four persons, suitable for both formal and informal interaction
Large meeting room: An enclosed meeting space for five to twelve people, suitable for formal interaction
Small meeting space: An open or semi-open meeting space for two to four persons; suitable for short, informal interaction

large meeting space

brainstorm room

meeting point
Large meeting space: An open or semi-open meeting space for five to twelve people; suitable for short, informal interaction
Brainstorm room: An enclosed meeting space for five to twelve people; suitable for brainstorming sessions and workshops
Meeting point: An open meeting point for two to four persons; suitable for ad hoc, informal meetings
Support spaces[edit]
Support spaces in an office are typically used for secondary activities such as filing documents or taking a break. There are twelve
generic types of support space, each supporting different activities.

filing space

storage space

print and copy area
Filing space: An open or enclosed support space for the storage of frequently used files and documents
Storage space: An open or enclosed support space for the storage of commonly used office supplies
Print and copy area: An open or enclosed support space with facilities for printing, scanning and copying

mail area

pantry area

break area
Mail area: An open or semi-open support space where employees can pick up or deliver their personal mail
Pantry area: An open or enclosed support space where people can get coffee and tea as well as soft drinks and snacks
Break area: A semi-open or enclosed support space where employees can take a break from their work

locker area

smoking room

library
Locker area: An open or semi-open support space where employees can store their personal belongings
Smoking room: An enclosed support space where employees can smoke a cigarette
Library: A semi-open or enclosed support space for reading of books, journals and magazines

games room

waiting area

circulation space
Games room: An enclosed support space where employees can play games (e.g. computer games, pool, darts)
Waiting area: An open or semi-open support space where visitors can be received and can wait for their appointment
Circulation space: Support space which is required for circulation on office floors, linking all major functions
Office space planning



Cubicles in a former coworking space inPortland, Oregon
Office layouts are arranged so that staff can work together in departmental and team groupings, providing the best opportunity for
efficient work flow, communication and supervision.

Churn rate
In many organisations, office layouts are subject to frequent changes. This process is referred to as churn rate,
[1]
expressed as the
percentage of the staff moved during a year.
Statutory requirements
Statutory requirements related to office layouts will vary in different countries but examples may include: the minimum amount of space
to be provided per staff member; fire safety arrangements;
[2][3]
lighting levels; signage;
[4]
ventilation; temperature control and welfare
arrangements.
[5]

Business needs
Office layout designs should provide an environment suitable for the business needs of the organisation. For example: call centres
undertake their business on screen and require small desk areas per staff member, minimum document storage, and may have li mited
requirements for photocopying facilities and printing. In contrast, companies handling paper based documentation will require larger
desks for their staff, storage for records, archive facilities, photocopying and printing facilities close to hand.
Accommodation standards
Organizations often have a policy on the minimum standards of accommodation for each staff grade. Administration staff may work in
open plan offices whereas managers may have individual offices, sized on a seniority basis. In open plan offices screens are
sometimes used between desks to reduce noise and provide an element of privacy.
Space planning
The grouping of staff in teams often provides the best option for inter-communication and/or supervision and is a key factor in office
layout design. However, where space is at a premium it may be difficult to accommodate a workgroup in a given area, and the solution
often involves making space by moving others. These types of move may be complex and disruptive as there is often a chain of events
involved.
Planning tools CAD
Modern office layouts are frequently planned using CAD (Computer-aided design) drawing software.
[6]

Services
Each desk in an office may require a telephone and computer.
[7]
In large offices the power and data cables may be run under a raised
floor to the desk. Another alternative in smaller offices is to use dado trunking around the wall. Other alternatives are to use ceiling
power poles which can assist space planning of desks away from perimeter walls
Partitions
Open plan offices are often divided up into smaller offices for managers, meeting rooms, etc. When this happens the designer has to
take into account several factors
[8]
including:
Heating/cooling zoning
Ventilation
Lighting and light switches
[9]

Emergency lighting
Small power
Voice and data cabling
Fire alarms
Fire stopping
Fire escape routes
Noise/acoustics

Staff welfare facilities
Office staff require access to basic welfare facilities in an office such as toilets and drinking water. Consideration may also be given to
vending, catering or a place where staff can make a drink and take a break from their desk.

Office Building
by Brian Conway
The Planning Site, LLC
Last updated: 07-22-2010



OVERVIEW
In the words of office design consultant and author Francis Duffy, "The office building is one of the great icons of the twentieth century.
Office towers dominate the skylines of cities in every continent [As] the most visible index of economic activity, of social,
technological, and financial progress, they have come to symbolize much of what this century has been about."
This is true because the office building is the most tangible reflection of a profound change in employment patterns that has occurred
over the last one hundred years. In present-day America, northern Europe, and Japan, at least 50 percent of the working population is
employed in office settings as compared to 5 percent of the population at the beginning of the 20th century.

Federal BuildingOakland, CA
(Courtesy of Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz )
Interestingly, the life-cycle cost distribution for a typical service organization is about 3 to 4 percent for the facility, 4 percent for
operations, 1 percent for furniture, and 90 to 91 percent for salaries. As such, if the office structure can leverage the 3 to 4 percent
expenditure on facilities to improve the productivity of the workplace, it can have a very dramatic effect on personnel contributions
representing the 90 to 91 percent of the service organization's costs.
To accomplish this impact, the buildings must benefit from an integrated design approach that focuses on meeting a list of objectives.
Through integrated design, a new generation of high-performance office buildings is beginning to emerge that offers owners and users
increased worker satisfaction and productivity, improved health, greater flexibility, and enhancedenergy and environmental
performance. Typically, these projects apply life-cycle analysis to optimize initial investments in architectural design, systems selection,
and building construction.

BUILDING ATTRIBUTES
An office building must have flexible and technologically-advanced working environments that aresafe, healthy, comfortable,
durable, aesthetically-pleasing, and accessible. It must be able to accommodate the specific space and equipment needs of the tenant.
Special attention should be made to the selection of interior finishes and art installations, particularly in entry spaces, conference rooms
and other areas with public access.

A. Types of Spaces
An office building incorporates a number of space types to meet the needs of staff and visitors. These may include:
Offices
Offices: May be private or semi-private acoustically and/or visually.
Conference Rooms

Employee/Visitor Support Spaces
Convenience Store, Kiosk, or Vending Machines
Lobby: Central location for building directory, schedules, and general information
Atria or Common Space: Informal, multi-purpose recreation and social gathering space
Cafeteria or Dining Hall
Private Toilets or Restrooms
Child Care Centers
Physical Fitness Area
Interior or Surface Parking Areas

Administrative Support Spaces
Administrative Offices: May be private or semi-private acoustically and/or visually.

Operation and Maintenance Spaces
General Storage: For items such as stationery, equipment, and instructional materials.
Food Preparation Area or Kitchen
Computer/Information Technology (IT) Closets. See WBDG Automated Data Processing Center for PC System related
information.
Maintenance Closets


B. Important Design Considerations
Typical features of Office Buildings include the list of applicable design objectives elements as outlined below. For a complete list and
definitions of the design objectives within the context of whole building design, click on the titles below.
Cost-Effective
The high-performance office should be evaluated using life-cycle economic and material evaluation models. In some cases, owners
need to appreciate that optimizing building performance will require a willingness to invest more initially to save on long-term operations
and maintenance.
To achieve the optimum performance for the investment in the facility, value engineering provides a means for assessing the
performance versus cost of each design element and building component. In the design phase building development, properly applied
value engineering considers alternative design solutions to optimize the expected cost/worth ratio of projects at completion. Value
engineering elicits ideas on ways of maintaining or enhancing results while reducing life cycle costs. In the construction phase,
contractors are encouraged through shared savings to draw on their special 'know-how' to propose changes that cut costs while
maintaining or enhancing quality, value, and functional performance. For more information on value-engineering, see WBDG Cost-
EffectiveUtilize Cost Management Throughout the Planning, Design, and Development Process.

Functional/Operational
Tenant RequirementsThe building design must consider the integrated requirements of the intended tenants. This includes their
desired image, degree of public access, operating hours, growth demands, security issues and vulnerability assessment results,
organization and group sizes, growth potential, long-term consistency of need, group assembly requirements, electronic equipment and
technology requirements, acoustical requirements, special floor loading and filing/storage requirements, special utility services, any
material handling or operational process flows, special health hazards, use of vehicles and types of vehicles used, and economic
objectives.

Flexibility
The high-performance office must easily and economically accommodate frequent renovation and alteration, sometimes referred to as
"churn." These modifications may be due to management reorganization, personnel shifts, changes in business models, or the advent
of technological innovation, but the office infrastructure, interior systems, and furnishings must be up to the challenge.
Consider raised floors to allow for easy access to cabling and power distribution, as well as advanced air distribution
capabilities to address individual occupant comfort.
Incorporate features such as plug-and-play floor boxes for power, data, voice and fiber, modular and harnessed wiring and
buses, and conferencing hubs to allow for daily flexibility at work as well as future reorganization of office workstations.

Urban Planning
The concentration of a large number of workers within one building can have a significant impact on neighborhoods. Office structures
can vitalize neighborhoods with the retail, food service, and interrelated business links the office brings to the neighborhood.
Consideration of transportation issues must also be given when developing office structures. Office buildings are often impacted by
urban planning and municipal zoning, which attempt to promote compatible land use and vibrant neighborhoods.
Consideration should be given when selecting office locations to the distance the majority of occupants will have to travel to
reach the office. Studies including zip code origination should be conducted to determine the best location of the office. The
development of new office locations will often necessitate relocation of employees, particularly if the office is moved or opened in a new
geographical area. Consideration of the municipal resources should include housing costs and availability, traffic congestion, school
system quality, cultural resources such as museums, sports teams and institutions of higher education, natural attractions such as
coastal areas, mountains and public parks, availability of educated labor, crime rate and law enforcement, and civic infrastructure
capacity such as water, waste water and waste processing.
Once a building has been constructed and occupied, it is critical that long-term performance be confirmed through an
aggressive process of metering, monitoring and reporting. The results of this feedback should inform maintenance operations and be
available as input to new design efforts.

Productive
Worker Satisfaction, Health, and ComfortIn office environments, by far the single greatest cost to employers is the salaries of the
employees occupying the space. It generally exceeds the lease and energy costs of a facility by a factor of ten on a square foot basis.
For this reason, the health,safety, and comfort of employees in a high-performance office are of paramount concern.
Utilize strategies such as increased fresh air ventilation rates, the specification of non-toxic and low-polluting materials and
systems, and indoor air quality monitoring.
Provide individualized climate control that permits users to set their own, localized temperature, ventilation rate, and air
movement preferences.
While difficult to quantify, it is widely accepted that worker satisfaction and performance is increased when office workers are
provided stimulating, dynamic working environments. Access to windows and view, opportunities for interaction, and control of one's
immediate environment are some of the factors that contribute to improved workplace satisfaction. See also the Psychosocial Value of
Space.
Natural light is important to the health and psychological well-being of office workers. The design of office environments must
place emphasis on providing each occupant with access to natural light and views to the outside. A minimum of 30 foot candles per
square foot of diffused indirect natural light is desirable.
The acoustical environment of the office must be designed and integrated with the other architectural systems and furnishings
of the office. Special consideration must be given to noise control in open office settings, with absorptive finish materials, masking white
noise, and sufficient separation of individual occupants.

Technical Connectivity
Technology has become an indispensable tool for business, industry, and education. Given that technology is driving a variety of
changes in the organizational and architectural forms of office buildings, consider the following issues when incorporating i t, particularly
information technology (IT), into an office:
Plan new office buildings to have a distributed, robust, and flexible IT infrastructure, which would allow technological access in
virtually all the spaces.
During the planning stage, identify all necessary technological systems (e.g., voice/cable/data systems such as audio/visual
systems, speaker systems, Internet access, and Local Area Networks [LAN] / Wide-Area Networks [WAN] / Wireless Fidelity [WI-FI]),
and provide adequate equipment rooms and conduit runs for them.
Consider and accommodate for wireless technologies, as appropriate.
For existing office buildings, consider improving access to the IT infrastructure as renovations are undertaken.
See WBDG ProductiveDesign for the Changing Workplace and ProductiveIntegrate Technological Tools for more information
about incorporating IT into facility design.

Secure / Safe
Terrorist attacks of the last decade have focused design on protection of occupants and assets against violent attack. Through
comprehensive threat assessment, vulnerability assessment, and risk analysis, security requirements for individual buildings are
identified, and appropriate reasonable design responses are identified for integration into the office buildings design.
Consider entrances that do not face uncontrolled vantage points with direct lines of sight to the entrance. Utilize site barriers and
setbacks, perimeter barriers and blast resistances, access control and intrusion detection, entrance screening, package screening and
control, open areas that allow for easy visual detection by occupants, and minimized glazing. See WBDGSafeProvide Security for
Building Occupants and Assets.
First-time visitors, unfamiliar with their surroundings, may have trouble navigating the safest exit route from the building. Consider
using increased signage and/or providing safety information and a building directory in welcome brochures. Also, review and evaluate
safety plans on a regular basis. See WBDG SafePlan for Fire Protection and SafeEnsure Occupant Safety and Health.

Sustainable
Energy EfficiencyDepending on the office's size, local climate, use profile, and utility rates, strategies for minimizing energy
consumption involve: 1) reducing the load (by integrating the building with the site, optimizing the building envelope [decreasing
infiltration, increasing insulation], etc.); 2) correctly sizing the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems; and 3) installing high-
efficiency equipment, lighting, and appliances.
Consideration should be given to the application of renewable energy systems such as building-integrated photovoltaic systems that
generate building electricity, solar thermal systems that produce hot water for domestic hot water (DHW) or space conditioning, or
geothermal heat pump systems that draw on the thermal capacitance of the earth to improve HVAC system performance.
Additional consideration should be given to the applications of other distributed energy sources, including microturbines, fuel cells, etc.,
that provide reliability (emergency and mission critical power) and grid-independence, and reduce reliance on fossil fuel grid power.

C. Example Design and Construction Criteria
For GSA, the unit costs for this building type are based on the construction quality and design features in the following table (PDF 876
KB, 36 pgs). This information is based on GSA's benchmark interpretation and could be different for other owners.
EMERGING ISSUES
Modernization

Federal Office Building, San Francisco, California
The extensive inventory of facilities that are over 25 years of age present a significant recapitalization challenge. For GSA, its first
impressions programaddresses the quality of the entrance and lobby areas of its older facility portfolio. Key areas of concern for
modernization include upgrading the exterior envelope, mechanical systems, telecommunications infrastructure, security, and interior
finishes. Improving the workplace quality, energy performance, security, flexibility to accommodate tenant churn, maintenance
overhead and life-cycle expectancy are important objectives for modernizing these facilities, Appropriate preservation for buildings on or
eligible to be on the historic registry is part of the modernization effort.

Commissioning
With the advent of improved building technologies and controls it is crucial that high-performance buildings of all kinds be properly
commissioned as part of a comprehensive quality assurance plan. In many instances, a process of ongoing commissioning has shown
to be effective.
Some federal agencies and private institutions are moving aggressively in the direction of mandating commissioning for all high-
performance structures in their portfolios.