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We have learned a great deal about designing buildings to attract and retain employees and we’re applying what we’ve learned to this new venture. Here is a partial list of the design elements that the building on our drawing board features.
To find out more information about this exciting opportunity, please contact Robert Eisenberg at (484) 484-1250.
High Ceilings
To allow introduction of mezzanines, raised floors, and imaginative, individuated design. Companies today know that to project integrity to customers and employees, they must “live the brand”. It is extremely difficult to create environments that reflect one’s corporate culture in an eight foot six inch high enclosure.
Operable Windows
No single amenity speaks more elegantly in favour of personal choice than a window that one can open. Nothing feels more confining than being stuck in a hermetically sealed box.
Imaginative Fenestration
To suit view and adjacent use. Does it make sense to anyone to design windows facing the lake to be the same size and shape as windows facing the building next door?
Balconies
Plentiful, generous and varied to allow a variety of uses.
Public Areas
Designed to promote networking. To enhance employee efficiency and enjoyment, lobbies should be a “collision zone”. Alcoves should be “huddle rooms”, places to meet for privacy away from the office, to grab a snack, provide day care or forms of entertainment.
Amenities will be Reminiscent of Home
Lobby furniture, pictures, décor, building materials are planned to ease the burden of long days at the office.
Campus-Style Site Plan
A six storey building with up to 30,000 square foot floor plates surrounding a courtyard large enough for playground equipment and outdoor furniture. The indoor-outdoor connection is obvious from the time one approaches the building to the time one leaves.
The public areas and the campus-style site plan promote interaction. Spaces that promote interaction continue to be important, not from just a business 'serendipity' point of view, but from a need amongst employees to establish a community. Because there is a lack of community in most suburban and urban areas, people seek it at their place of employment.
Environmental Friendliness
Will be obvious from such things as “green roof” and the building materials selected. Generation Y is now entering the workforce, and this generation understands about environmental sustainability.
Grand Staircase
From lobby to lower floors.
Underground Parking
That receives natural light from open wells that are large enough to make users feel connected to the outdoors. Automobile aisles will feel like interior roads, and pedestrian routes will feel like well lit sidewalks.
IT, Telephony, and Data Transmission
It has been surprising to learn that for many companies information technology and communications-related expenses exceed occupancy costs. After signing a lease with a company that hosted very large web sites, we were shocked when they informed us that their move to the Toronto Carpet Factory precipitated savings in Internet connectivity that exceeded their rent. The new office building will incorporate and enhance the savings that the Carpet Factory and the York Liberty Buildings now offer.
Connectivity
For a 2,000 square foot office, a T1 line downtown generally costs between $500 and $1,000 per month, depending on usage. That same line at the Carpet Factory costs between $150 and $500 per month. An average 2000 square foot tenant will save at least $350 per month or $2.00 per square foot on connectivity alone.
Co-Location Centre
For many companies, the security and reliability of their server and of their Internet connectivity is absolutely critical. Many of those companies have opted to locate their servers in a co-location centre such as Q9. The Toronto Carpet Factory is the only complex that we know of anywhere that can boast its own co-location centre. A suite on the fifth floor of 77 Mowat offers businesses in York Heritage buildings
in Liberty Village uninterrupted power source (UPS), multiple pathways to the Internet, enormous bandwidth, and a secure environment to house their servers.
One business informed us that connecting to a public co-location centre costs them $1,000 per month. At York Heritage Buildings, connecting is free. If that business occupied 2,000 sq.ft., the savings would be $6.00 per square foot.
Cable Distribution System
In almost every old building and in many new ones, telephone and data cables (copper or fibre) are exposed to careless trades and vandalism. Wiring must follow awkward and convoluted pathways and is difficult to service. The Toronto Carpet Factory (67/77 Mowat Ave.) now boasts a new cable distribution system whose conduits are housing data lines.
Wireless Connectivity
York Heritage tenants in Liberty Village now have the capability of wireless access to their office network anywhere in the vicinity of their buildings, any time. |
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