Special Edition: Business Not as Usual Winter 2020
Business Not as Usual
01 Page 04 - 09
Q&A With Lisa Picard: Reflections on the Future of Work Lisa Picard
Page 02 - 03
Letter From the Editor
03 02 Page 20 - 27
At Willis Tower, Community Is Still the Heart of Our “New Normal� Page 10 - 19
David Moore
Finding Purpose in the Pandemic: Designing for the Future in a Time of Uncertainty Lauren Sozio Page 28 - 29
Editorial Credits
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
Letter From the Editor
Together in Uncertainty When we transitioned from our offices to work from home, our lives turned upside down. Not only were our physical safety and comfort at risk because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we had to adapt to unparalleled business challenges in familiar places. Our kitchen tables became our boardrooms. We took urgent work calls from closets, to drown out the noise of remote school. Dogs barked in the background of Zoom meetings. How do we carry on with business as usual in the chaos? We don’t. And that’s OK. Not only is it OK, it’s essential. In this season when business is anything but usual, we are called to bring our whole selves to work. We have deepened our resilience, explored our purpose, led with curiosity and embraced creative ways to maintain community.
Most of all, we’ve learned that when we’re working alone at home, we’re not alone. We are figuring this out together, building connections across distances and cultivating compassion when we need it most. With that spirit, we’re sharing reflections on the present and future of work from our leaders at EQ Office. As we embark on a new year and a new future, let’s lean into uncertainty together. With gratitude,
Lauren Sozio, Editor in Chief
02
Rosabel Tao, Editorial Adviser
eqoffice.com/placelab
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
03
01
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
Q&A With Lisa Picard: Reflections on the Future of Work
04
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
Lisa Picard
CEO President, EQ Office
Lisa Picard is President and Chief Executive Officer of EQ (formerly Equity Office). Lisa leads culture, vision and strategy at EQ and has a passion for the curation of great spaces that maximize human potential, particularly in this age of rapid automation and technological advancements. As CEO, Lisa drives the strategic direction for the organization and inspires her team to find creative solutions that challenge past assumptions, finding new ways to become that crucial partner in helping companies identify what may be slowing success.
Q&A
Reflections on the Future of Work: What’s Ahead for Us in 2021 In the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to our world that affected every industry. Like many organizations, EQ Office had to adapt rapidly, shifting its operations and priorities to ensure the safety of team members, customers, and partners across the country. What is the biggest shift COVID-19 has caused in the commercial real estate industry?
1
Will it be a lasting change, and if so, are there any upsides to it?
As we dive into a new year, Lisa Picard shares her thoughts on the impact of the pandemic on the workplace, why we have to acknowledge that we’re social creatures at heart, and how the workplace will benefit from a new flexibility when we normalize.
COVID-19 accelerated a growing trend toward distributed work and helped us to foster an acceptance that “work” can happen anywhere. We learned how to use nearly costless tools to continue business without friction from our workstations at home. C-suite executives have walked away with two key learnings:
05
First, talent can be productive while not in the office, and the majority of office workers appreciate the flexibility to choose where they work. But second, innovation is a team sport. Attempting to do new things while working in isolation has its limits. You can maintain a good company or defend the business, but you cannot grow a great company remotely.
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
2
How will cities continue to evolve as we move forward?
Successful cities will be those that continue to benefit from a density of talent and leadership. Talent is drawn to the energy of other innovators, and companies will continue to concentrate their operations where the talent is. Jobs follow people. I believe we will see cities with a lower cost of living capture more demand, but metropolitan work hubs are not going away. Highgrowth technology cities will continue to expand their boundaries, as workers gain flexibility and commute from farther distances without impacting their lifestyle.
06
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
3
What impact has COVID-19 had on the future of work?
What is the importance of community in the workplace, and what impact has remote working had on office culture?
4
“
The pandemic accelerated the beginning and end of many relationships; that is, our relationships at home, at work, with work, with our cities and with technology. I’m particularly interested in the impact it has had on technology. The pandemic has jump-started a new marketplace for workplace digital tools. We are still in the nascent stages of adopting digital tools, and I know we will look back and say, “Remember when we all had to use Zoom?” Technology has also meant that people are always “on.” At EQ, we have had to carve out pauses and focused hours, because digital meetings were consum-
ing entire days. Make no mistake, this pandemic pushed us through a lot of friction and it will be difficult to turn our old life back on. From now on, the office will not so much be a place of work, but a place where we set our goals, and where we mentor, and collaborate. We will see an increasing blend of digital technologies and software layer onto physical space, or a “phygital” work platform that personalizes the experience and learns the organization’s patterns. This will help to transform the workplace from its static, commodity role into a dynamic, experiential playground.
Humans do their best work in community. We need time on our own to concentrate and distill our thoughts, but then we need to get into a group and riff on new ideas. Collaborative thinking is a powerful way to generate value after a period of isolated thinking. We are social
creatures, and there’s a reason why the Roaring ’20s unfolded after the lockdowns during the 1918 pandemic. Personally, I know I’ve experienced a sense of latent, pent-up creativity, waiting to break through to the other side of this pattern of work in isolation.
“That’s what we want to help them reimagine as a partner. We need to give the office a big job: build culture, underpin collaboration, reinforce purpose and serve as a venue for reskilling the workforce.” 07
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
5
How should companies outside the CRE space feel about the future of the office?
6
You’ve said jobs will continue to follow people. What is the best way employers can attract top talent in today’s shifting work climate?
7
What are the pitfalls that employers should be watching out for in 2021?
The office has always had to play a role in an organization, just like any key employee. Right now, companies need to assess the “job” they hired the office to perform for the organization. How does the office bring value? In what ways does it contribute? Fun exercise, right?
Overall, we are finding that our customers are largely focused on a safe “return to work” and that most aren’t conceptualizing how the office will work in the future. As their partner, that’s what we want to help them reimagine. We need to give the office a big job: to build culture, underpin collaboration, reinforce purpose and serve as a venue where the workforce can acquire new skills.
Talent is the customer in today’s economy, and humans love choice. Given the market uncertainties, companies in 2021 are likely to offer increasing flexibility, even though they may struggle with how to define it. We will see growth companies with a culture of “intrinsic motivation” (i.e. purpose) easily attract talent back into the physical office. Other organizations will need to instill fear, or FOMO
(that is, Fear Of Missing the Office!), to pull people back. Other, maturing companies may cut ties with the office, as a cost-cutting strategy. 2021 will continue to be rough for the commodity office market.
We are knowledge workers, and the injuries of today’s workers aren’t physical, but mental. Leaders must be focused on the health of their team members, and watchful of burnout in 2021. Office experiences will need to be better than the constraints of working at home, offering
talent opportunities to enhance their health and wellness. At EQ, we will be making sure to prioritize our employees’ well-being, and driving home our belief that an organization can only succeed by putting people first.
08
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
09
02
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
Finding Purpose In Pandemic: Designing for the Future in a Time of Uncertainty
10
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
Lauren Sozio
SVP of Strategic Marketing, EQ Office
With over 15 years of experience helping brands tell their stories, Sozio’s mission is to scale a customer-centric marketing program across the country, and imagine the vision behind the assets.
“
“Energy, attitude and personality cannot be ‘remoted’ through even the best fiber-optic lines. … Real, live, inspiring human energy exists when we coagulate together.” — Jerry Seinfeld, The New York Times
It started on the West Coast sometime in late January—a few exposures after the troubling appearance of a previously unknown virus.
”
As a real estate platform with assets across the country, EQ Office carries an overarching responsibility to ensure the safety of our staff and tenants. From day one, we were determined to stay at the forefront of recommended practices, while communicating early and often. Equipping our tenants with the information and the resources they needed to navigate safely through these difficult times became our sole charge. We were never alone in our commitment; we watched as other organizations in our industry banded together to protect tenants at any cost.
We didn’t understand the ripple effect that this would have across our markets. The threat to our communities forced us to interpret the complex and often conflicting guidelines from the CDC, to write a new playbook for managing a health crisis, and to make unprecedented decisions with limited, ever-changing information.
11
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
Shifting individually and collectively from the ins and outs of daily operations and into survival mode has taken an enormous emotional toll, forcing team members to draw on sources of strength they didn’t know they could muster. As the pandemic wore on, our work crystallized into a clear cycle—react, respond, deploy, repeat—as we rose to the challenges of the relentless and constantly evolving situation. This crisis forged a unique bond across our teams. Although all of us are working remotely, we rallied around a greater purpose, united in the recognition that our relationships with our tenants are our most precious asset. Here’s how we’ve shifted momentum, from a piecemeal, reactive approach to purpose in the present.
Our New Normal: When Reaction Is a Default Our natural reaction to uncertainty is to jump ahead and try to predict the new normal, especially when we’re dealing with a crisis of unprecedented proportions. When so much is unknown, the default setting is to problem-solve. But what if we’re focused on solving the wrong problems? What if our initial responses are simply Band-Aids for huge issues that require far more complex solutions? And most of all, what if we’re not even asking the right questions? Even the often-used term “post-COVID” assumes a clear distinction between what we’re experiencing now and a future that may not exist. Rather than “canceling 2020” and confining ourselves to imagining a return to normalcy,
“
“Rather than ‘canceling 2020’ and confining ourselves to imagining a return to normalcy, our organization has created a new foundation in the uncertain present. We’ve taken this extended moment as a reminder to design with purpose and intent.”
12
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
Beginning Again, With Introspection
our organization has created a new foundation in the uncertain present. We’ve taken this extended moment as a reminder to design with purpose and intent.
the world?” — McKinsey & Company, “Defining corporate purpose in the time of coronavirus”. Once the reality of the pandemic began to set in — and work-from-home became an indefinite proposition — our teams began searching for meaning. We needed a refuge from the fire drill. After realizing that we could keep the lights on (even though the lights have been dimmed, given that “isolation threatens the creative, problem-solving ecosystem of the organization”), we began looking for initiatives that could give our siloed team members a common purpose.
Our goal is to harness the energy that emerges when we “coagulate together,” even when we are separated by distance. When we’re all focusing on something greater than ourselves, we can fulfill our potential as an organization now and maximize it when we do return to the workplace. “[The pandemic] demands … a moment of existential introspection: What defines [a] company’s purpose—its core reason for being and its impact on
This didn’t appear out of thin air. There was no shortage of enthusiasm and
13
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
passion: EQ had already built on decades of investments in local social charters, annual volunteer drives and sustainability practices. Instead, we struggled with a lack of organization around a North Star purpose statement that we could scale for impact. We needed to define a core program that we could benchmark, measure and improve upon year over year. This needed to speak to our organizational, local and personal missions, which is why it was no easy task. So many stakeholders are involved that finding a shared purpose is a tall order, even for the most dynamic teams.
Purpose & Pillars
Our EQ Purpose
To build economic health in communi regenerating urban spaces, preservin culture and driving humanity into the By living our purpose every day, we create tangible economic value for our tenants, our partners and the communities in which we operate.
We began by auditing our strengths, weaknesses and whitespace, scanning several regions across the country to understand where we could make discernible change. We discovered a string of themes and initiatives: how we had invested our time, attracted and retained team talent, supported arts and culture initiatives, repurposed materials, collaborated with ethical suppliers. Could we tie these individual efforts together into something grateful and more meaningful?
Translating Purpose Into Integrated Action
We then returned to our mission and vision to guide our purpose. While vision is a projection into a better future self, purpose is a company’s “philosophical heartbeat” in the moment. At the end of the day, we knew this purpose must speak to all of us at EQ. Together, we arrived at a purpose statement that summed up the heart of our business:
“Find a way to express the organization’s impact on the lives of customers, clients, students, patients — whomever you’re trying to serve. Make them feel it.” — HBR, “Your Company’s Purpose Is Not Its Vision, Mission, or Values”. At EQ Office, this purpose statement centers on serving our tenants. But what happens when our tenants can’t go into the workplace? How can we extend the relationship beyond the physical space?
“To build economic health in communities by regenerating urban spaces, preserving local culture, and driving humanity into our workplaces.”
14
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
ities by ng local workplace.
“
“Nothing can substitute for the kinetic energy that evolves from proximity.”
Nothing can substitute for the kinetic energy that evolves from proximity. We also recognized that what we create off the grid now will have an impact in the future. That’s why we’ve used this purpose as a framework to consider both EQ’s giving efforts and its overarching business model.
”
sustainable procurement. Additionally, we are invested in preserving culture in our assets across the country, from transforming the lobbies of Willis Tower in Chicago to our most recent collaboration with the local Costa Mesa Arts community. Finally, it complements our mission to inspire and develop talent, and expands the opportunity for us to work with national partners like YouthBuild, offering the under-resourced entry into our business through mentorship.
Our work is built on improving existing structures for the betterment of surrounding communities and the environment. This was the basis for many of the initiatives we’d been launching, from waste management and disposal to
15
“
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
“A shared purpose requires a fundamental shift in business strategy, from the way we procure our products to the way we evaluate the composition of our workforce. If we are to live that purpose, it must permeate every aspect of our organization.”
”
This shared purpose goes far beyond Energy Star certifications and reducing greenhouse gas (although such elements are certainly part of it). It requires a fundamental shift in business strategy, from the way we procure our products to the way we evaluate the composition of our workforce. If we are to live that purpose, it must permeate every aspect of our organization.
Bringing our purpose to life with specific initiatives has unleashed creativity during a period that could otherwise have been stagnant and hollow. By channeling our energies into innovation, we’ve connected across functions and regions—even while working remotely.
Nowhere is that clearer than in our social impact program, or our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) task force. All the members of the task force raised their hands as volunteers to participate, and more than half of our organization is involved in this initiative. Like our purpose, this program reaches across every business unit and region: our investment strategies, development protocols and daily operations management.
16
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
17
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
Implementing These Ideas at Your Business Discovering your organization’s purpose may sound like pie-in-the-sky idealism to many leaders struggling to make ends meet, assessing whether to furlough or layoff staff, cut product lines, or let go of office space. But we’ve found that taking the time to define our purpose has enabled us to make tough decisions with the clarity that comes from understanding the “why” behind our business.
5 Steps to Clarify Organizational Purpose
1
We believe that these steps can help you discover your purpose, too:
Don’t recreate, repurpose.
As with most new initiatives, it’s imperative to find out what already exists before trying to drive change. Start with an audit.
2
Dust off your company’s vision and mission.
While vision is a projection into a better future self, purpose is the reason to believe. And without that, your company can be hollow. Find a purpose that is true to your core.
18
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
Purpose Doesn’t Care About Proximity
3
In times of uncertainty, it’s easy to forget that a pause can be a gift, a reset, a time to collect ourselves. These periods remind us to practice self-care and reprioritize our time with the people around us. If you can create the space for introspection, you can realign with your purpose. The benefits aren’t just tangential— they’re revolutionary. And without the required pause, we might never have discovered the way that our organization can provide more value in the present and in the future.
Balance organizational and personal passion.
Just because you attach your name to an impact program doesn’t mean that your employees can’t still benefit from recognition and support for their personal devotion to the cause. Matching and volunteer recognition programs empower teams to keep giving to causes that are near and dear to their hearts.
4
As SVP of Strategic Marketing, Lauren Sozio brings a unique perspective to the commercial real estate space. With 15 years of experience helping brands like Hulu and Vanity Fair tell their stories, her mission is to scale a customer-centric marketing program across the country, and to imagine the vision behind the assets.
Keep your scope focused.
Purpose allows you to say “no,” which is an unpopular concept when it comes to doing good. Being a jack-of-all-trades, though, always dilutes impact and meaning.
5
Think globally, act locally.
Look for areas for substantial change at a local level. The closer you’re able to get to the movement—to see the impact manifest in your backyard—the more tangible the benefits.
19
03
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
At Willis Tower, Community Is Still the Heart of Our ‘New Normal’
20
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
David Moore
SVP Portfolio Director, EQ Office
David Moore leads his team on the strategic direction, project execution, and value creation efforts for the Chicago office building portfolio.
The coronavirus crisis has had farreaching effects on us individually and as a society, both inside and outside our homes, and for many of us, in the office spaces that we will return to soon. At EQ Office, we have seen the work environment change rapidly, and we are reinventing what it means to be part of a workplace community, no matter where that community now resides.
In a recent survey conducted by EQ Office, tenants told us that they feel that their company culture has deteriorated and that the lack of faceto-face interaction has hurt working relationships and left them missing a feeling of connection to their professional community. “There is no informal productivity or connectivity that happens,” as one of our tenants put it, “when people are not in the office together. The ability to have water-cooler chats or pop into someone’s office is lost. It’s hard to have spontaneous interactions in an online world.”
When workplaces began to shut down in the spring, in the anxious early days of the pandemic, a critical aspect of our traditional work community was lost. Companies across the country scrambled to make sense of a steady stream of new information, to conform to changing rules and health guidelines, and to adjust to the rapid rollout of new and largely untested work-from-home policies. Employees adapted out of sheer necessity, and many have enjoyed the additional flexibility and newfound freedom of working remotely. Now, months later, after countless hours spent on video conferences, the initial glow has faded, and we are seeing a fatigued workforce and a falling-off in productivity amid the challenges of balancing life with remote work.
21
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
At EQ, we recognize that work is a major part of our personal identity. Without the personal exchanges, collaboration and spontaneous discussions we are used to, we become aware that we are missing something more than simply work, something bigger than ourselves. This is driving a renewed desire, almost a yearning, to get back to the workplace, our colleagues and our professional community.
“
“Workplace communities are as important as ever, and this has become even more evident as we move forward.”
”
In a survey of Facebook employees covered by the Harvard Business Review, the participants identified three things they wanted most from work: career, community and cause. When those three critical elements are met, they give employees a sense of respect, care and recognition from their community at work, and they report that they truly “bring their whole selves to work.” This sense of connection with a work community enriches their feeling of accomplishment, beyond the physical walls of the workplace.
Workplace communities are as important as ever, and this has become even more evident as we move forward.
Employing an experimental approach to workplace innovation We are living through one of the most challenging times for commercial real estate in decades, which presents an incredible opportunity for discovery, and for leadership around what the new normal will look like for the workplace. Just as universities and K-12 classrooms are experimenting with novel ways to address the pandemic, our properties and in particular the iconic Chicago landmark Willis Tower, have become critical innovation labs for EQ Office, as we guide the evolution of the new work experience. While we are still in the early days, and the situation continues to develop, we are pioneering new ways to modernize office spaces for the new realities. First and foremost at Willis Tower, that means working to ensure tenants’ safety and well-being. Early on, we realized that there simply cannot be a strong sense of community unless people feel safe. “It takes leadership to improve safety,” as Formula One racing driver Jackie Stewart has said. Our approach has been to go above and beyond simple adherence to the CDC’s basic public health requirements, and to help create a sense of psychological safety. Applying Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, when employee safety (either real or perceived) is threatened, a company must provide an adequate level of protection, or it will not be able to
22
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
access the performance from its talent that results in the productivity and the creativity that businesses thrive on.
As we continue to research and innovate, we have already made great progress on advancing these studies and on technology pilots at Willis Tower, including:
To optimize the safety and well-being of our tenants and visitors, we have spent months of exhaustive research and testing to ensure that we can provide a safe, secure workplace to return to when the time comes.
Providing multiple touchless access options for the building. We now understand that this option is more important than ever, and full touchless access will soon be available to the entire building population, from lobby entry, through the turnstiles and up to their suites.
For example, our VP of real estate technology, Mikki Ward, led the charge on evaluating and testing the latest technological solutions available, including: ways to identify, monitor and track building visitors and to support enhanced cleaning measures; modifications of mechanical systems to improve air quality and measurement; spatial rearrangements to help keep people safely separated, and more.
New and improved filtration systems to increase air quality, and improved mechanical monitoring processes to provide additional ventilation and airflow and to manage temperature and humidity more precisely.
23
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
“
Engaging our own independent consulting physician to advise us on each step of our safety implementation and to continuously review all processes, touchpoints and protocols.
“We have focused o CEO and President, calls the ‘phygital,’ b the physical service that we typically pro tenants and deliveri digital experiences,
Enhanced deep-cleaning, limiting density in common areas, and staggered elevator flow, with reduced occupancy.
Rebuilding community by taking a hybrid digital/physical approach Another key takeaway from our work with tenants at Willis Tower is their deep desire to stay connected to the building community. We prioritized the transition from physical to digital, and have been rolling out new ways to recreate our building community and to maintain connectivity in the digital realm.
24
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
Services are a critical aspect of the Willis Tower brand and experience, and they bring tenants together as a community. While some of our amenities are still temporarily closed and we need to remain socially distant, we’ve started to re-energize Willis Tower’s culture by modifying and adding to our community offerings and maintaining much of its programming and services.
on what EQ’s , Lisa Picard, by recreating es and amenities ovide to our ing them as too.”
”
We understand from our tenants that recreating a “sense of community is harder to do because people are busy, more distracted, and ‘virtual happy hour’ events aren’t the same as having events or gatherings in the office.” This just means that we have to continue to innovate, and to work even harder to build that community in the phygital world. To that end, and since the start of this pandemic, we have launched new products and services that extend physical experiences to the virtual space, including:
To accomplish this, we have focused on what EQ’s CEO and president, Lisa Picard, calls the “phygital,” by recreating the physical services and amenities that we typically provide to our tenants and delivering them as digital experiences, too.
• Enrichment: “Tower Talks”, a live lecture series that featured a broad variety of topics — from workshops geared to advice for interns to book author and artist talks — has gone virtual. It is now available on the Tower app.
As she sums it up, “Companies have been considering new hub-and-spoke strategies as they evaluate the current situation and begin planning for the future. Since the pandemic has forced the need for work-from-home policies, employers know that focusing on maintaining a strong culture and sense of community is mandatory to keep and attract talent. While a ‘phygital’-first approach — one that prioritizes a digital workplace combined with a physical one — is a near-term necessity, the future of work is human. People need and crave human connection. Community drives a sense of purpose.”
• Networking: Affinity and cohortbuilding community groups, including the wildly popular “Women of Willis,” provide opportunities for connection that have extended into digital meetups and happy hours. • Fitness: TONE Fitness Center is providing online fitness classes through the Tower app, both on demand and in live formats.
25
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
Expanding flexibility and workspace options In 2020, we have certainly learned that the future is never guaranteed, and that to thrive requires adaptation and flexibility. At EQ, we know we must support companies as they adapt, and that the office space of old is not the office space of the future. EQ Office’s philosophy of spatial alchemy, an intentional intersection of space and culture, has already led to the creation of a variety of workspaces in Willis Tower. More innovation is on the way. The core idea is to blend spaces and provide greater flexibility for the wide variety of solutions that employees will choose for their working arrangements now and going forward. In the near future, we will be making adjustments to increase support and encourage the ability to collaborate, concentrate or commune in Willis Tower. The rooftop terrace, on Level 4 above Catalog, is now open exclusively to tenants on weekdays, with socially distanced seating areas, and custom-designed and landscaped greenspace with a variety of plantings, shrubs and trees. More changes are planned on the tenant-amenities floors, like Tower House and Altitude, so that
“
people can meet in small groups over coffee or a snack from the café. In the coming weeks, some furniture will be moved out to create safe meeting areas, and the space will be redesigned for collaborative pods or for peace and quiet. In the next few months, we’ll continue to speak with tenants and survey their workforces. We’ll explore their concerns, inquire how they’d like their office spaces to change, and work with them on their plans for returning to the office — in whatever form that takes. The transformation of Willis Tower has delivered on our goal of creating an all-season, urban destination with a core and an irreplaceable community — delivering the best of both work and life to the building’s tenants, talent, visitors and to residents of Chicago. Getting back to our workplace communities in the evolving new normal is our top priority at EQ Office, and at the heart of what we are doing at Willis Tower. We will strive to reinvent physical spaces that make people feel both safe and secure and that inspire them to be at their most productive and creative at work.
“EQ Office’s philosophy of spatial alchemy, an intentional intersection of space and culture, has already led to the creation of a variety of workspaces in Willis Tower.” 26
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
Willis Tower Spotlight: Stepping into the art-filled lobby of the newly renovated Willis Tower, a visitor will immediately understand why it has been described as the “future of work and play”: The building has been undergoing an extensive redesign — even through the pandemic. Its amenities are meant to work together to create a sense of belonging for all tenants, beyond their individual companies, as part of a larger community. The goal is to make going to work feel like a creatively inspiring, supportive and inclusive gathering-place. • Formerly known as Sears Tower, Willis Tower is the type of workspace that so many of us are yearning to return to, after being forced to shelter in place for the spring and summer of 2020.
27
• Last year, more than 15,000 people worked in the building every day, and more than 1.7 million people visited the tower and its world-famous Skydeck Chicago. • The historic tower is the home of more than 100 businesses. It features 300,000 square feet of newly renovated retail, dining and entertainment space, called Catalog, in commemoration of the historic Sears catalog that was known in every home across the country. • Recently, 150,000 square feet of tenant amenity spaces have been freshly built, including tenant lounges, cafés, bars, a fitness center and a 30,000-square-foot outdoor terrace and garden.
PLACELAB SPECIAL PUBLICATION
Editorial Credits
Editor in Chief
Lauren Sozio Executive Editor
Riley Insko Editorial Advisor
Rosabel Tao Brand Design Lead
Angela Liu Editorial Administrator
Joanie Edgerly Staff Writer
Elizabeth Wellington Copy Editor
Victoria Elliott Illustrator
Jing Wei
28
BUSINESS NOT AS USUAL
29
Special Edition: Business Not as Usual Winter 2020
