The Horsham, Pa., offices of water treatment company Severn Trent Services are designed to improve performance and provide employees with a rewarding work environment. The workspace encourages collaboration and movement, while the walls double as whiteboards for brainstorming. The Washington, D.C., office of Perkins+Will, an architecture company, captures natural light to save energy. H2M, an architectural consulting and design company based in Melville, N.Y., ditched its high cubicle walls for a new, open space that allows for more teamwork. Other than a few executives at the Oshkosh, Wis., automotive web design company, nobody has an office door that closes. The Trenton, N.J.-based company converts hard-to-recycle materials into usable products.ĭealerFire’s office promotes camaraderie and interaction among employees. TerraCycle’s office is made of trash, including the desks, conference rooms and communal spaces. Even the CEO sits among the company’s 120 employees. The open office space at Etailz, an e-commerce company in Spokane, Wash., is completely open-no cubicles and no offices. But they continue to evolve based on a company’s culture and needs. Open office designs are not a new concept, as this 1918 photograph of a U.S. Many employers all over the world have embraced open office plans, driven by cost concerns and a desire for flexible designs that can accommodate a workforce that could expand or contract suddenly. Google, Yahoo and eBay have all adopted this model, and Facebook recently enlisted the help of world-famous architect Frank Gehry to design the largest open office space in the world-a single room that stretches 10 acres to house several thousand engineers.

Indeed, the tech world has led the way in implementing large open workspaces in which there are few or no walls, let alone private offices. The infusion of the multi-tasking Millennial generation into the workforce-and the hip spaces many inhabit in technology companies-has played a role as well. It’s a trend that represents a convergence of other trends: the shift toward more-collaborative work environments, an increased demand for transparency and continuing cost pressures that challenge employers to do more with less. There’s a certain logic behind the move many companies have made toward open offices over the past decade.

Open the office