Working in the Open Safer and More Desirable

California Buildings • Q3 2022

Designers and Realtors Create More Open Outdoor & Indoor Spaces

The concept of being “open” has so many positive meanings in our culture, so it is appropriate that openness is now being used in workplace and living architectural contexts to mean greater health and community. And no place in the country has a better climate for year-round outside openness than California, with mostly mild temperatures and plenty of sunshine.

As people return to offices and hotels and better enjoy multifamily and communal settings, designers and commercial realtors are creating more open surroundings where employees, guests and residents can gather safely and receive the biophilic benefits of the outdoors.

(Continued on next page)

Above: Rendering of rooftop at 415 Natoma in San Francisco. Image courtesy of Brookfield Properties.

Right: University of San Diego North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood includes ample outdoor spaces. Image courtesy of HKS/Tom Harris Photography.

California Buildings • Q3 2022

415 Natoma in San Francisco

One dramatic example of this is the facility at 415 Natoma within the 5M mixedused development in downtown San Francisco. It is the 25-story, 650,000 square-foot Class A office component of the 5M Project. The building includes ground-floor retail, an expansive open-air lobby with direct access to Mary Court, and numerous outdoor terrace opportunities for office tenants.

“When it comes to office design, landlords like Brookfield Properties are laser focused on creating spaces that empower our tenants and spur collaboration, creativity, and innovation. The needs of the modern workforce have evolved significantly since the days of the office cubicle and a one-sizefits-all approach. At 415 Natoma, Brookfield is working hand-in-hand with each tenant to curate a wide variety of dynamic spaces, such as breakout rooms, open concept floors, outdoor workstations, and more, with a focus on elevated interior design and the seamless incorporation of technology, to ultimately create environments that inspire employees and drive productivity,” says David Sternberg, executive vice president for Brookfield Properties. 5M is a recently completed mixed-use development in downtown San Francisco. The project incorporates innovative ways to redevelop large-scale urban sites by bringing together diverse uses and programming influenced by the SoMa neighborhood and community. In a partnership with the Hearst Corporation, Brookfield Properties has transformed empty parking lots and underutilized warehouses into a vibrant pedestrian experience with new public open spaces, housing, offices, retail and restored historic buildings.

(Continued on page 8)

From top: Expansive lobby opens to the outdoors. Dynamic spaces feature open-concept floors. Development features park settings.

California Buildings • Q3 2022

Working in the Open (Continued from page 7)

Openness Is a California Phenomenon

Openness is being embraced all over the state, in all sorts of commercial settings, like the campus of the University of San Diego, where the Delawie architectural firm designed the Knauss Center for Business Education. It includes a natural ventilation system so that when the conditions are right, the mechanical system can shut down and the windows open for natural ventilation. The design also incorporates an exterior courtyard designed for informational study and classes to spill outside. There are outdoor tables and work areas on the balconies of the building that face the courtyard and on the west side of the building.

In 2019 Delawie also designed BioLegend including its main campus building with a now iconic 70-foot tall atrium. The main campus is LEED Certified. There is a 4,380 SF green roof with landscape designed by Schmidt Design Groups that incorporates drought-resistant, native species. It provides the BioLegend team the opportunity to relax or meet outside. This is part of 250,000 SF of outdoor amenities integrated into BioLegend’s campus. It features operable exterior walls in a variety of projects.

Operable exterior wall at BioLegend. Photo courtesy of Delawie. Left: University of San Diego North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood offers meeting rooms that incorporate the outdoors. Image: Courtesy of HKS/Tom Harris Photography.

UC San Diego North Torrey Pines

With arguably the world’s best weather, the San Diego area showcases openness. HKS Inc.’s San Diego Office Director Jeff Larsen says, “The workplaces at UC

San Diego’s North Torrey Pines Living and Learning

Neighborhood NTPLLN prioritize equitable access to evidence-based design strategies employed to improve mental, physical, and social health. Designed to support individual respite and collaborative gathering in a garden-like setting, interior workspaces and conference rooms connect seamlessly to exterior terraces with folding glass doors to engage scenic coastal views and direct access to the region’s breezy, restorative climate. These blended interior/exterior spaces are also accessible to students and the greater campus community for the added benefit of social engagement and belonging due to the increased opportunity for chance interactions and meaningful conversations among the diverse groups of campus community.”

California Buildings • Q3 2022

San Diego Market

“San Diego is a coastal market that has always embraced and created attractive outdoor spaces for commercial properties due to its idyllic year-round moderate temperatures and abundance of sunny days,” says Derek Hulse, managing director, Cushman & Wakefield. “The pandemic has further fueled the desire of tenants/companies wanting fresh air and outdoor amenities in an attempt to provide their employees with a safer and healthier work environment.

“In the past, an outdoor area may have consisted simply of a small seating area in a breezeway or open patio, but today’s modern outdoor experience is being rethought and significantly enhanced. When possible and outdoor space is ample, landlords are looking to provide outdoor areas for company work functions such as conferencing and events—some with cutting-edge video screens. “They also envision an opportunity to elevate amenity packages by adding or improving features such as outdoor dining options,

550 West project in San Diego. Photo credit: Gensler.

lounge areas, as well as recreational activities and sports courts like pickle ball, bocce ball, basketball, volleyball, etc. They are also incorporating outdoor fitness, yoga and other health and wellness activities.

“In existing projects and certainly for new developments, landlords are also creating balcony space adjacent to tenants’ indoor space designated for their exclusive use or utilizing roll-up doors to connect indoor/outdoor space. We will continue to see this trend with no expectation that demand for outdoor space will change in the future,” he concludes. n

“We will continue to see this trend with no expectation that demand for outdoor space will change in the future,” says Cushman & Wakefield’s Derek Hulse.

Above: 1420 Kettner project in San Diego. Photo credit: Haley Hill Photography.

Right: Sunroad Centrum project in San Diego. Photo credit: Sudenim (www.sudenim.com).

California Buildings • Q3 2022

IFMA Meets Challenges With Facility Management Staffing

Q: What are the major challenges of a facility manager today? A: There are several current challenges facing the FM community: One is staffing for trades. It has become increasingly more difficult to fill and keep tradespeople, such as HVAC, maintenance techs, stationary engineers, etc., in those positions. And due to a competitive hiring marketplace, many FMs are losing their tradespeople to other companies offering better employment packages.

Another is adapting to a hybrid working model while controlling costs. There is a worldwide desire to determine the ideal work model, but as the workplace continues to change and evolve, and new terms emerge for hybrid work – defining what those mean is proving difficult. Due to the fluid nature of hybrid work and the changing expectations of use and purpose, space planning is also heavily affected.

And lastly, while sustainability continues to be a perpetual topic for FMs, ESG reporting is a whole a new challenge for the profession. Organizations are increasingly adopting carbon reporting and reduction requirements. As that occurs, the span of reporting is reaching beyond facility energy use to other activities beyond the facility manager’s control. Requiring carbon footprint for every item and activity – manufactured or produced, with standardized rating, is likely to become a part of the FM domain. IFMA’s FMJ Magazine recently published an interesting article on this: http://fmj.ifma.org/publication/?i=752294&p=20&view=issueViewer Q: Is staffing facilities becoming a major problem, and how is IFMA helping to meet it? A: IFMA is committed to helping grow interest in careers in the FM profession and feeding the pipeline of emerging professionals. With $99.8K as the average base salary for an FM, there is no better time to join the industry. One way we are working to grow the pipeline is through the creation of an all-new awareness video campaign, anticipated to rollout in early 2023. The series will spotlight a variety of facilities and highlight opportunities available uniquely through a career in FM.

To support existing FMs in advancing in their careers, IFMA provides members with access to Knowledge Library which hosts a wealth of resources vetted by industry leaders. They also can turn to one another for peer-to-peer discussions through Engage, IFMA's online forum, and through local chapters, industry councils and communities of practice.

To support FMs in advancing in their careers, IFMA provides unparalleled training and is the provider of the industry’s globally-recognized professional credentials—FMP, SFP and CFM. For those unsure of what training would be best for them, IFMA has developed a new SelfAssessment Tool to help individuals recognize their possible FM knowledge deficiencies while identifying the training to best fill those gaps. Following recommended training, the dashboard score will automatically adjust to reflect the user’s new level of expertise.

Recognizing certain beneficial expertise is available from adjacent industries whose work often touches an FM’s, IFMA has developed strategic partnerships with other highly respected associations, to provide an entry point to training for members on both sides of the partnerships. While our partner courses and alliances continue to expand, they currently include ISSA, ASIS, ASHRAE, CEI, OSCRE, BIFMA, NEBB, NEEC and AVIXA.

IFMA’s Foundation is also instrumental in building interest in FM as a career through its Global Workforce Initiative (GWI). Working in partnership with community colleges and economic development authorities, the Foundation continuously creates pathways for opportunity.

With Laurie Gilmer, Chair International Facility Management Association

California Buildings

FCC Order Contributes to Rising Telephony Costs and Deteriorating Service

Rising costs and a deteriorating network, particularly in California, have accelerated the desire to eliminate dependency on analog phone lines. But why? What’s changed? Let’s start with a quick history lesson. In August of 2019, the FCC issued Order 10-72a1. This order (which many in the industry have incorrectly called a mandate) gave carriers a three-year window to remove support from traditional landlines. We’re now at the end of that optional grace period.

Let’s be clear, as copper networks aged, support for this “old technology” waned. With improved options already available, official acknowledgment from the FCC really just gave carriers permission to continue status quo— driving their customers to alternative solutions via increased connectivity issues and higher prices.

The real issue is that analog phone lines are expensive to maintain, and carriers are more than happy to pass those costs along to you. Check your phone bill lately? Knowing just how much your elevator phone is costing you is now more important than ever. I’ll explain.

Imagine it’s Monday morning. You are sitting at your desk in San Diego opening your phone bill (for a single line) which totals $468.93. No, that’s not a typo, almost $500 per month for just one phone line connected to a single emergency elevator phone. Now think about what you’d do if that really expensive elevator phone line started experiencing connection issues, making continuous mechanized calls. And when you call the phone company to request immediate service (because this is an elevator

emergency phone), you’re told someone could be there on Friday. Meanwhile, the telecom company is also charging you $1 per minute ($1440 a day) for each of those automated calls. The bad news? That’s a true story. When the property manager reached out to his elevator company, they confirmed the problem was with the phone line and beyond their scope. Then, the calls stopped. Problem solved, right? As a part of their troubleshooting efforts, the elevator company discovered the phone line had been completely disconnected. The phone company had terminated the phone line, but Telecom Provider did it without talking to anyone on site. Instead of being relieved the automated calls had Phone Line Expense $980.00 $0.00 stopped, the building Monitoring Expense $0.00 $96.58 manager was now even Total Monthly Charge $980.00 $96.58 more concerned because the elevator communicaKings III Monthly Savings $883.42 tion system was out of Kings III Annual Savings $10,601.04 code compliance. The good news? The elevator company recommended that property reach out to us here at Kings III. Our cellular solution completely eliminates the need to rely on traditional landlines. We were able to eliminate the phone line in question, another line, and $900 in monthly expenses; all while keeping the building’s elevator communication system code compliant. (See chart above.) Think this is an anomaly? Think again. We have customers in San Diego and Los Angeles who are now seeing phone bills as high as $1,200 per line! We encourage you to take a closer look at your telephone bills — and don’t hesitate to reach out to Kings III

for help in doing so.

To learn more, check out the full story complete with the phone bills mentioned above at https://go.kingsiii.com/ san-diego.