Ottawa company hopes redesign can spark office return
One Ottawa office is hoping renovations can be the catalyst for a downtown revitalization.
At Orangutech Inc., new office on Metcalfe Street, the Ottawa tech firm has left cubicles behind, opting instead for a large, open, communal space.
"The whole office is physically designed for connection and collaboration in bigger groups. We’re asking people not to come in here and put their heads down and work as they would at home," Corey Bainerman, Director of People and Culture at Orangutech said.
While still under construction, the newly designed space was made in collaboration with the company’s employees in an effort to transition from remote work to a hybrid setting focused on flexibility, and weekly in-person team meetings.
"We’re not hoping people come in to do quiet work; we’re hoping they come in to connect, collaborate, create new ways of working together," Bainerman said.
Commercial real estate experts say they’re far from the only company trying to revitalize their space in an effort to fill the gap left in offices and the downtown core, but the amount of empty spaces is alarming.
"Downtown hasn’t recovered the way it has in the past. It’s still seeing a massive shortage of tenants and of people compared to pre-pandemic levels," Jared Jenicek, a commercial real estate agent with Real Strategy said.
According to the latest National Market Snapshot, investment company Colliers took stock of office vacancy rates in 12 Canadian cities. According to the report, the vacancy rate is on average 13 per cent, up from eight per cent pre-pandemic.
In Ottawa, in the third quarter, Colliers found a 10.6 per cent vacancy in the city.
"In the past, the average is between two and five per cent," Jenicek said.
Some Ottawa employees who work in similarly renovated spaces say the change has been an incentive to come back to the office more frequently.
"We went last week, they remodelled it, it’s like a new Shangri-La. Everybody is just excited to go back again and work," Lassen Nallek, who works with the federal public service said.
But even among its supporters, the transformations aren’t enough to convince employees a permanent return to the office is necessary.
"A day, two days a week is still reasonable. I think, for what I do, I find we’re still more productive from home and more practical to keep the hybrid remote work," Nallek said.
Among the main concerns about the new spaces was a lack of isolation and ability to work in quiet.
Others expressed concerns about commute times, separation from family and pets, and the potential loss of productivity.
"There’s a certain generation that’s comfortable working in that kind of situation. Myself, in my field, I like to concentrate and get my work done and I need to have that sort of seclusion in order to produce,” Greg Tiakun, who works remotely, said.
Despite concerns, Bainerman is hopeful the new space can be a model for others to follow and a potential catalyst for a larger return to the office down the road.
“It’s an investment in the long-term, we really are confident people will come in, they’ll see the value and we’ll kind of grow the momentum that way,” he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Boeing is on the verge of launching astronauts aboard new capsule, the newest entry to space travel
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.