having spent collective months in that very office over the past decade, i loved it...... Archived Message
Posted by suburbanmyth on February 26, 2024, 11:23:01, in reply to "Yeah that example is a stance against office parks, which I think everyone can agree with"
you parked right in front of the front door. you pulled up and you were in a conference room in less than 3 minutes. the view outside the east-facing windows was of an idyllic pond with ducks surrounded by a beautiful park/garden dotted with rabbits. a fountain in the middle of the pond--nothing more relaxing. for the west-facing view, you had rolling hills with expansive meadows with cows grazing. you couldn't pay for a better view outside of law firm window. the complex used to have a cafeteria that excellent food no doubt at the insistence of the various tech companies who were our neighbors. there was no office setting i wanted to work out of more. (and yes, there was quick access to the 280, allowing me to get to SF in an hour). the cafeteria went tits up like 8 years ago and then things became quite challenging, leaving us dependent on food delivery. i'm guessing the new place is pretty cool and they picked a great location -- if you can't see ducks, rabbits and cows, downtown PA is not a bad consolation. Previous Message Soulless pits of hell that nobody wants to go to. Previous Message Downtown office locations in major metros like New York/Chicago/etc. aren’t suffering from not being near restaurants or public transit. Previous Message https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2024/02/23/literally-nothing-walkable-why-gibson-dunn-moved-to-downtown-palo-alto-405-136894/?kw=Gibson%20Dunn%27s%20Test%20Case%20For%20the%20Post-Pandemic%20Law%20Office Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher used to call Page Mill Road its Bay Area home; the firm opened its office there in 1979. But in October, Gibson Dunn moved to a mixed use retail/commercial building in downtown Palo Alto, trading its former office park digs for a location down the block from Starbucks, across the street from a Keen hiking boots shop and a three block walk from the town’s Caltrain high speed rail stop. In 40 minutes, a lawyer leaving the new office can be at home in San Francisco, no matter how many Teslas crawl along U.S. 101 at rush hour. “With younger lawyers, but frankly with everybody, coming into office parks—what Page Mill Road is—it’s big, there are no restaurants, no food, no coffee, no anything. Just giant office buildings with office parks surrounding them, literally nothing walkable,” said Michael Celio, a litigator who serves as partner in charge of Gibson Dunn’s Palo Alto office. ... After also looking at Redwood City and Mountain View, the firm settled on a former J.P. Morgan Chase location at 310 University Avenue in Palo Alto. “Stanford is four blocks away, the train station is at 1 University Avenue, and this is the highest density of restaurants and coffee shops—we have four on our block,” Celio said. “We also noticed our client base—especially my client base in venture capital—is really starting to move here. Three or four clients are now our neighbors.” As for the office itself, Gibson Dunn took the building “down to the studs,” removing the old bank’s trading floor and interior walls in favor of glass walls and an open floor plan. “There really isn’t a single office where you can shut yourself away from the world,” Celio said. “It creates a culture where we acknowledge each other’s presence, and even a modest interaction is vastly superior.” The layout also challenges the traditional, hierarchical law firm floor plan. While Celio conceded that his office is slightly larger than others—something the architects did unprompted, he said—the offices are all mostly the same size. And no one “owns” an office permanently. Instead, offices are available to be “leased,” either on a daily basis, a multi-month basis or a long-term lease. Lawyers who come in every day take out longer-term leases on offices, while more-mobile attorneys reserve for shorter periods. Standing desks, snacks and coffee, and plug-and-play conference rooms with views of the foothills behind Stanford complete the new space, which had its soft opening in October. All told, the firm downsized from more than 30,000 sq. ft. in its former office park to just over 20,000 sq. ft. in the new space, all while increasing lawyer count from 40 in 2020 to 47 at present. With the arrival of first-years in the fall, the office will hold 60 lawyers by 2025. The space could comfortably seat 75 or 80 lawyers, Celio said, and the firm could take more space in the same building or look across the street if necessary.
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Message Thread:
- This seems like a pretty sensible way to attack thje post-pandemic office (paywalled) - ATL February 26, 2024, 9:23:28
- That feels like a pretty specific problem for that area, no? - OB25 February 26, 2024, 10:00:12
- I was speaking less about the move to downtown PA and more about giving workers flexibility - ATL February 26, 2024, 14:24:44
- Lower Manhattan buildings are being leased much faster than Midtown even though Midtown has much bet - JacobRDaugherty February 26, 2024, 11:25:21
- Yeah, really a suburban thing* - gvibes February 26, 2024, 10:30:29
- Yeah that example is a stance against office parks, which I think everyone can agree with - snipes824 February 26, 2024, 10:04:07
- having spent collective months in that very office over the past decade, i loved it...... - suburbanmyth February 26, 2024, 11:23:01
- Didn't we decide this 20 years ago?* - Sounder February 26, 2024, 10:42:06
- Hindsight question. Why did office parks get so popular / ubiquitous? - haighter February 26, 2024, 10:27:43
- Is it because that’s where their workforce moved to and lived after WWII?* - IlliniOllie February 26, 2024, 17:25:02
- The Triangle can’t be the only exception? - TarheelIllini February 26, 2024, 10:50:34
- Just a land use thing in the suburbs I think - snipes824 February 26, 2024, 10:33:36
- companies were sick of their employees being mugged in cities 1970 to 1995 ish - bigbop85 February 26, 2024, 10:32:18
- ooo - complainant February 26, 2024, 18:39:22
- "his office is slightly larger than others—something the architects did unprompted" - gvibes February 26, 2024, 9:51:01
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