"It also drains the immediate neighborhoods of being able to have a commercial reality."īusiness Carhartt blowback shows the tightrope companies face over vaccine mandate decisionsĪt the same time, it is "a difficult one to pull apart," he said. It's not really engaging with the world in the way most people do," he said. "Work-life balance cannot be achieved by spending all your life on a work campus. That, he argues, may seem to keep workers happy but can quickly spark burnout. He said blurring the line between work and non-work keeps employees tethered to the office, benefiting the employer most of all. But Wilkinson said as companies plan to bring workers back into the office, such arrangements should be reconsidered. Other tech giants began to roll out their own free meals, nature trails and private transportation services in efforts to attract and retain talent. While Silicon Valley has long been known for offering unusual amenities to its workers, Google's offerings set a high bar. Wilkinson spoke in an interview at his glass-enclosed hillside home in West Los Angeles, which some have compared to a " spaceship on stilts." His comments on Google's campus came during an extensive conversation with NPR about how the pandemic may forever reshape office life and what it could mean for workers. "But it also has a whole range of potentially negative impacts." "This notion that you can provide everything that would support a worker's life on campus might appear to be extremely generous and supportive," he said. The office would also become famous for its amenities: Gourmet meals. In Mountain View, what emerged was a maze of well-lit nooks, bleachers and clubhouse rooms to encourage collaboration. "Larry and Sergey said at the time, 'We don't really have any reference point but the Stanford campus model,' " said Wilkinson.
Wilkinson helped lay out Google's campus after winning its design competition in 2004, leading him to work directly with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. He has planned spaces for the likes of Microsoft, Disney, Intuit and other companies seeking unorthodox approaches to work life.īut he now has regrets about what is perhaps his most famous work: Googleplex, the tech giant's posh headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Architect Clive Wilkinson's design for the famed Googleplex set a high bar for other Silicon Valley companies eager to keep employees at home in the office.įor more than three decades, Clive Wilkinson has been among the most sought-after office designers in the world.
0 kommentar(er)
