By Benedict H. Dubbs, JR., AIA RA, LEED AP

We will go back to work and the classroom and resume participation in social gatherings in restaurants and theaters. But when we do, it will not be business as usual. The office and classrooms will look different, function differently, and be utilized differently. The focus on health, safety, density, security, and location will have entirely new meanings, and high-quality property and facilities management will be more important than ever.

Interaction is a key catalyst for innovation. The physical office and classroom space will continue to facilitate interaction and collaboration and, ultimately, personal health, well-being, and productivity. But it will look different. Flexibility will be critical to accommodate rapid change in these built environments. For some institutions, the Learn/Work from Home (L/WFH) policy will continue. But touchdown points catering to face-to-face or large group meetings promoting connections and collaboration will still be needed. Social connections will remain an important necessity. Beyond indoor spaces, outdoor amenities may rise in significance without daily trips to an office or classroom and the social interaction those experiences bring.

Bringing offices, universities, military, and health institutions back “online” could be vulnerable to the secondary waves of contagion. Those with dining, living, or other spaces that cater to large groups must be reevaluated and ensure adequate social distancing so they can safely function. New automation and voice technology such as Amazon’s Alexa might help eliminate “touch factors” such as doors, lights, and elevators. New space plans mandating social distancing for open offices and common areas will be needed, including every-other-desk occupancies.

Adding sanitation stations in common spaces and documentation of the more frequent cleaning schedules will be required. Staggered workforce and class schedules, limiting the number of people in a space at a certain time, capacity signage, and fewer chairs in meeting rooms or classrooms are quick and easy fixes.

A crucial element of returning to the office or classroom is understanding the occupants’ needs and maintaining communication. Significant collaboration will be needed between building owners, administration, tenants, employees, and governments to address the challenges that lie ahead.

We suggest utilizing our Distancing Design Best Practices, which we call the “Three R’s to Reenter the Built Environment.” They are as follows:

1. Review
2. Recommend
3. Retrofit

Review / Analyze Current Spatial Conditions

Analysis considers safety and any other opportunities for functionality plus full assessment of all building systems, including air and water quality issues, in buildings that have been vacant. HVAC systems should produce healthy indoor environments where pathogens are filtered, diluted, and removed from the occupant breathing zone.

Recommendations for Reentry

Processes, protocols, clear workable agreements, and rules of conduct must put the safety of everyone first. Clear communication and education will ensure a smooth reentry with new guidelines and expectations. We suggest designating a small core team for all company/institution communications to maintain a consistent message for a smooth journey into today’s new normal. Facility managers may want to refer to IFMA (International Facility Management Association) guidelines and protocols for further information.

Workplace layouts and employee densities must be carefully considered to address some forms of social distancing, whether by mandate or preference. Estimating usage, monitoring density and flow, and creating flexibility to adjust protocols will be critical for reentry. New work-flow diagrams will allow people to walk safely through spaces avoiding congestion points.

For example, single way directional flows should be implemented, such as different staircases for ascending and descending traffic. These specific plans should be visually displayed for all inhabitants to utilize properly. Depending on the size of an organization, scheduled lunch or dining shifts can alleviate clustering around kitchens, microwaves, and dishwashers.

Retrofit / Reimagine the Built Environment

While social distancing may seem, hopefully, a temporary action, an eye toward open spaces that enable and encourage people to spread out, may be a better option. While physical barriers will be used in the short term, a more long-term architectural solution can be developed with space planning.

Common areas must ensure adequate space for social distancing between occupants. New furniture with antimicrobial fabric or material may be needed and adapting workstations for all employees to work safely will be required. In addition to these general retrofits, other new building upgrades may be required such as negative air pressure systems to prevent the spread of future infections.

Building occupants can encourage health by installing temperature check stations. Handwashing must be approached as both an infrastructure and a behavioral issue. Water temperature, vigilant refilling of soap dispensers, touchless hand dryers, and dynamic signage should be mandatory in bathrooms.

Implementation of biophilic design principles, which connect occupants to nature, is proven to have an immediate, positive impact on mental health. A living green/plant wall or a nature-based wall covering are two examples of ways to positively improve the human experience in the built environment.

What we do over the next six to 12 months can ensure that our communities get up and running again while protecting against similar scenarios in the future. We hope that some of these ideas will assist your organization as it transitions into this post COVID-19 era.

By Mike J. Kushner, CCIM

Co-working and shared office space is not a new model. Businesses, like Regus, have been providing flexible, monthly memberships for access to shared office space for years now. This rose out of a growing need for businesses to have short-term, extremely flexible work locations so that they can scale up or down rapidly. Particularly, early stage startups couldn’t afford to lock into even year-long contracts for office space, because from week-to-week their needs for workspace were constantly changing.

What shared co-working space provides is an extremely flexible option for businesses and their employees to have a professional workspace with the ability to increase or decrease their space quickly and frequently. Now other industries have taken note of the unique benefits of co-working spaces and have started to develop their own model. The healthcare industry has jumped on this bandwagon and we’re now beginning to see the idea of medical co-working spaces spread across the nation, starting in cities such as Scottsdale, Arizona.

It may be hard to envision how doctors and other medical professionals can use shared workspaces to see patients, especially given the privacy and health considerations that come with the nature of the business. However, when you dig a little deeper, you’ll see that it’s a well thought out model that stands to disrupt traditional medical offices that tend to carry a large overhead and are unable to easily adapt.

Benefits of Using a Medical Co-Working Space

Co-working spaces are usually newly remodeled and fully built-out to fit the exact needs of the industry they serve. For medical co-working spaces, these rooms will feature a clean and organized space with new furniture and all the necessary resources to see and treat patients. Medical professionals can reserve the space for only the days that it’s needed. For some, this might be just 2-3 days per week. In a traditional medical office setting, when not in use, the space must still be paid for even if it’s sitting vacant.

Additionally, the concept of medical co-working spaces allows medical professionals to “test out” a new area where they may consider opening an office in the future. By offering services in a co-working space in the new area, they can see if patients prefer to see them at this location, and about how often they can fill their schedule here.

Space That Can Change with Demand

Additionally, co-working spaces are extremely flexible. Most businesses offering this amenity require only a 12 week commitment, then charge month-to-month. This is a big difference from a traditional office lease which is at least one year, usually multiple years.

In the medical industry, providers typically experience one of two problems as it pertains to medical office space. Either their practice is growing, and they don’t have enough rooms to accommodate their patients, thus delays in appointments or appointments that must be made weeks in advance. Or, the practice is shrinking and they’re losing even more money paying for space that is not being used. In both scenarios, medical professionals could benefit from the flexibility of office space that can change with demand.

With flexible office space, like co-working spaces, the need for space can change week-to-week and month-to-month. This affords medical professionals extreme flexibility. The end result is more convenient options for patients and less overhead for doctors.

Privacy and Health Considerations

It’s important to take into consideration that the highest standard of privacy and cleanliness is always expected by patients. If medical professionals should choose to see patients in a co-working setting, they should be prepared to reinforce to patients that though this is a “shared” space, the room is completely private and always properly cleaned.

As with any new trend, there may be some initial hesitations to overcome from both the providers and the patients. It’s a new model and something that will take some getting used to. However, because there are so many pros to outweigh the cons, as more and more people experience medical care from a co-working space, soon it will feel as comfortable as a traditional office environment – if not more so!

A Trend on the Rise

The reality is the co-working model is exploding, taking real estate empires, like New York City, by storm. The 1.7 million square feet that co-working providers, like WeWork, leased in the first half of 2018 accounts for 10 percent of all new leasing activity in New York City this year. In fact, WeWork is about one lease away from becoming the biggest private office tenant in Manhattan – beating out JP Morgan Chase! How this relates back to the medical office market is that a trend that so quickly proved its value and dominance in a place like New York City in just eight years, will next begin to expand into smaller markets and new industries. This is not some overnight trend that will be a flash in the pan. Rather, it’s the future of office real estate that traditional real estate owners and investors need to embrace if they want to keep and attract new tenants.

The Bottom Line

Major healthcare trends are sweeping the nation and they stand to greatly change the way healthcare-related businesses view and use commercial real estate. The concept of co-working spaces that doctors and medical professionals can use to see patients is just one of these trends, and potentially a very disruptive one.

The benefits are clear. Being able to add or lose space on short notice and without penalty will allow medical professionals to save a ton of cost on overhead while having access to adequate space, if their practice grows. The most critical piece that will make this trend a success is that patients “buy into” the idea that they will be receiving care in a space that could be shared by other medical professionals on different days. So long as privacy and sanitary conditions are maintained, this trend has a lot of potential to benefit all parties.

By James J. Green, Jr.

Investing in regular, preventative, or restorative cleaning can be a low priority for building owners and facility managers. With competing demands for limited dollars, cleaning beyond the basics of emptying the trash, vacuuming, and disinfecting the restrooms can easily fall by the wayside.

The fact is this: You can save money, sometimes substantial money, by investing in a good building cleaning program. By properly cleaning your building, you can do more than simply avoid unnecessary maintenance costs — you can actually extend the useful life of your building. On the other hand, improper cleaning can lead to expensive maintenance costs and irreversible damage.

Let’s take a look at two key components of your building that, while seen every day multiple times a day, may have escaped your attention: the exterior and the flooring. There are several reasons why cleaning the exterior of your building makes good business sense.

• Preserve the exterior. Cleaning the building surface does more than simply remove dirt and external contaminants. While dirt and pollutants pose more of an aesthetic concern than anything else, the threat posed by water-storing fungi has serious performance implications for the building. When mold spores attach to the building surface —whether the exterior is masonry, limestone, or precast concrete — they start a cycle of life that mars the appearance of the building with water stains. The fungi retain the moisture on the building exterior and manifest themselves in the form of green, black, and grey stains on your building. The destructive properties of water are heightened in that process. The mold that develops on the exterior can lead to deeper problems within the building. It can contribute to so-called “sick building” syndrome, which can threaten more than just the health of the building; it can threaten the health of the tenants, employees, and visitors.
• Extend the life of caulks and sealants. Simply, properly cleaning your building exterior regularly is far less costly than a major refurbishment of caulking, sealant, and flashing. The safe cleaning of a building protects and enhances the existing caulk and sealant by gently lifting mold, mildew, and dirt off the surface. The best way is to use a light-duty power washing system to gently remove all dirt, mold, other grime, and fungi.
• Return the original beauty of the building. In many cases, building owners or property managers have simply forgotten the appearance of the original surface. The most obvious reason to remove the matter is to restore the building to its original state. In addition to mold, mildew, and dirt, carbons created by vehicle and industrial emissions often damage buildings located within city limits.
• Portray a professional operation. A clean building is a good investment and a magnet for prospective tenants. A dirty, dreary building is tough, if not impossible, to sell to a prospective tenant and makes it difficult to justify a rent increase to existing tenants. A clean building will help improve tenant and employee and be more attractive to customers. The first impression is a lasting impression.

Now onto the carpeting. Most interior flooring of professional office buildings consists of carpeting. Carpet cleaning greatly enhances office health, employee morale, and your office’s image to visitors and customers. But how do you know if your carpet is in need of cleaning or if restoration is necessary? Most people are not even aware that there is a difference, but there is. Understanding those differences will determine the long-term quality of your carpet.

Regular cleaning is usually necessary for carpets that have heavy foot traffic on a consistent basis. The carpets experience heavy soiling and require spot and stain removal. This is usually rectified with one or two cleanings. It is widely known that it costs about $600 to remove a pound of dirt from carpet.

Restorative cleaning is typically required when the carpet has been significantly worn down because of foot traffic and a lack of a good cleaning program. More often than not, the carpet fibers are so heavily damaged that the life expectancy of the carpet is greatly reduced.

Many building managers shy away from restorative carpet cleaning because of the time it takes for the carpets to dry. This is why you want to use a contractor who employs a low-moisture system to remove surface soils. These technologies consume, on average, 10 times less water compared to conventional cleaning methods. For most applications, only water is used, thus greatly reducing the environmental impact of chemicals while improving indoor air quality. It also reduces re-soiling. With low-moisture systems, carpets are dry and ready for traffic within an hour.

During the next budget review, take a hard look at your current exterior and interior building cleaning regimens. Assess what’s working and what could be improved. Listen to tenant feedback regarding their concerns. Then formulate a plan and schedule and make the necessary investment for both regular and restorative building cleaning. The resulting dividends? Improved building appearance, reduced maintenance costs, and enhanced tenant morale and retention.