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In the past, employee workspaces were confined to a limited range of options. Retail and manufacturing workers toiled at their places behind counters and help desks in stores or on the assembly line. White collar workers found themselves shoehorned into offices or ubiquitous, identical cubicles. More and more, however, organizations are looking to enhance worker productivity and communication with more open and flexible workspace designs.

The power of mobile computers had been a major factor in allowing some companies to give their employees greater freedom to work where they want. While workers remained tethered to heavy desktops, their options were limited. However, with a myriad of light weight, but processing and memory heavy, laptops and an increasing number of connected mobile devices keeping data and communications options at workers’ fingertips, employees need no longer feel bound to their desks.

An article in the New York Times, cited Martha Choe, chief administrative officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, who prefers a long table in a brightly lit mezzanine over her well-appointed office as her choice of workspace at the foundation. The Times noted that Ms. Choe had participated in designing the foundation’s office and had instilled a desire to provide workspace options into the final floor plan.

“There’s a recognition that we work in different modes, and we’ve designed spaces to accommodate them,” Ms. Choe told the Times. “I think one of the lessons is to understand your business, and understand what your people need to do their best work.”

The article noted that the building’s architect, NBBJ, attempted to incorporate a number of emerging workplace trends into the final design. A premium was placed on permitting “conversational noise and commotion” in the foundation’s offices. Sequestered, closed off spaces like private offices still exist, but are not considered a high priority in the design.  Admitting lots of sunlight through broad windows, was a priority and the workspace provides ample views of the surrounding cityscape, including views of the city’s iconic Space Needle. Worker mobility was also taken into consideration, with workspaces designed to accommodate laptop and mobile device users. The article said the NBBJ had found fully two-thirds of U.S. offices have adopted some form of “open space” layout. Mostly, this is done to save money, the article noted.

According to the Times, Seattle is a laboratory of sorts for innovative office designs, owing to its relatively young and tech savvy workforce and a local culture that emphasizes openness and lack of conformity.

NBBJ specializes in trying to sell open floor plans to business clients looking to create new workspaces or renovate existing ones. “You have spaces where you go and seek refuge,” Eric LeVine, an NBBJ architect, told the Times “Or you hunker down at your desk, maybe you put your headphones on, and people will know to leave you alone.”

Russell Investments, an asset management firm traded in its 17 floor conventional office tower space for an NBBJ-designed, five story space that has no private offices, even for the CEO. The company has realized a dramatic reduction in workspace spending, down 30 percent per employee in the new office.

Most of the firm’s employees like the new open, airy, egalitarian space, according to Ron Bundy, chief executive of the Russell Index Group. “Where it can be a challenge,” he conceded to the Times, “is if I’ve got a client conversation coming in 10 minutes and I really need to prep for it.”

In the new office, not every employee has a desk to permanently call their own. This has spawned a group called “free-deskers,” the article said, who come into the office each day and choose whatever desk is available.

Not everyone is a fan of the new trend in office design.  The article cited Susan Cain, author of “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” who expressed misgivings about how workers actually function in large, open spaces. She noted that different people have differing work habits and that some actually benefit from the enclosure offered by private offices and cubicles. Personal space remains important to some workers, Cain said. “It’s the room of one’s own,” she told the Times. “Your photographs are on the wall. It’s the same reason we have houses. These are emotional safety zones.”

Still, the trend toward open spaces and mobility seems to be here to stay. "There is a reason people go to Starbucks to work, and it's not because their coffee is 10 times better," Paul Lushin, owner of Lushin & Associates, an executive coaching firm, told the Indianapolis Star. "It's the atmosphere. And, in a way, companies are creating that Starbucks atmosphere where people can be more productive."

The Indianapolis Star noted that companies of all sizes and in all sectors were moving toward the idea of open workspaces. Even traditional industrial firms like power generating equipment manufacturer, Cummins, had embraced the trend.

"I'm sure we can all accomplish tasks in a cube, but there is something to be said for interacting all day. It really does help to foster innovation," said Vanessa Cunningham, workplace planning leader at Cummins, told the Indianapolis Star. The article noted that Cummins would soon have 2,000 employees deployed in its re-designed, open and light-filled Columbus, Ohio, facilities.