As multiple pressures bear down on today’s corporations—constrained

budgets, the difficulties of attracting and retaining talent, the need

to adopt sustainable practices—the organization’s infrastructure and support services are expected to perform more efficiently and in more innovative

ways.

Companies are changing the way they do business in response to globalization, influences that transform the workplace into workspace, and a constantly shifting environment of macroeconomic forces. In fast-moving companies seeking competitive advantage, these forces are prompting corporate real estate professionals to take on new roles, moving from a transaction-based cost center to a strategic asset that manages functions adding value to the enterprises. This chapter delves into these trends, and their likely continuing impact on corporate real estate far into the future.

Listen as Brady Mick, Strategic Design Leader at American Structurepoint, discusses the role of workplace design in helping teams collaborate and do their best work.

Written by Sid Majumdar and narrated by Gayle Crew. The corporate cafeteria supply chain is broken, and the fix may already be growing inside your building. Food prices have surged 23.6 percent since 2020, supply chain disruptions now hit every 3.7 years on average, and 30 percent of all produce spoils before reaching an end user.

Written by Emma Ascott and narrated by Gayle Crew. Coworking was built on a simple promise: Work near other people and good things will happen. Coworking spaces have been known to inspire ideas, friendships, referrals, energy.

Listen as Cliff Booth, Founder and Chairman of Westmount Realty Capital, discusses the factors driving decisions in industrial real estate today.

Written by Bob Varga and Mette Shenker and narrated by Gayle Crew. Hospitality-inspired design has become the standard for modern offices. For the past decade, principles and trends from hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality spaces have brought comfort and functionality into today’s office design. The era of hospitality-inspired design helped employees and guests feel welcome, but today it can feel flat, inauthentic, and difficult to execute on a budget.

Written by Tim Hatton and Narrated by Gayle Crew. After a decade outside Birmingham, engineering consultancy Arup returned to the city center. The move reconnects the firm with clients and community while accommodating 900 people – each with different working needs – and signals its renewed commitment to the Midlands.

Listen as Varun Kohli, Director of Sustainability, and Matt McDonald, Office Sector Leader, both with Corgan, discuss a landmark sustainable design project. Their client, Wells Fargo, has opened the largest net-positive corporate campus in the US.

Written by Rob Kubiak and Narrated by Gayle Crew. You can almost hear it already: the sales call on speakerphone, the laughter from the kitchen, the coffee machine or Keurig, the project huddle that somehow migrated right behind your chair. It is the ambient soundtrack of modern work, and it is exhausting a lot of people.