Better Buildings = Happy Employees

Oregon companies are finding that an energy-efficient office building can produce a more productive work force..

By Teri Cettina

Step into the new Weiden+Kennedy (W+K) headquarters building in Northwest Portland and there’s no question in your mind: this is a creative place. Employees sporting multi-colored hair, capri pants and orange flip-flop sandals make their way through the venerable advertising agency’s new digs. On the second floor, workers frequently pause and chuckle as they pass the “graffiti wall.” Designers and writers add their caricatures and witty quips to it on a daily basis. But there’s something else creative about W+K: the building itself. Bare concrete floors in the newly remodeled space give the former cold-storage warehouse an edgy, urban-industrial feel. High ceilings expose the massive timber beams. A skylit atrium swathes the building with natural light, even on cloudy Portland days. And the building itself is surprisingly quiet, thanks to sound-absorbing wall panels and an ultra-efficient air flow system—quite a change from the agency’s previous office space.“We called our old place ‘the catacombs,’” says W+K’s facilities manager, Madeline Kokes. “We were in three separate buildings downtown, with lots of closed-off offices and hallways. It always seemed really dark. Here, though, we feel really great about the space and especially all the light.”

That’s just what the project’s developer, Gerding/Edlin, hoped to hear regarding the building’s energy-efficient design. Whoa—who said employees were talking about energy efficiency? Well, they weren’t – exactly. But as it turns out, many of the features employees like best are a direct result of energy-saving techniques.

Full article text available upon request.

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