JLL’s 2022 Office Fit Out Guide report provides benchmark costs to build out a range of office types across major markets in the United States and Canada. The cost benchmarks are built on the data from thousands of real-world projects, supported by detailed cost estimating models, and confirmed by local experts working across the country.
Additional variants of the COVID-19 virus delayed a mass return to the office in 2021, frustrating expectations for a timely return to normal. At the end the first quarter of 2022, hybrid work remains prevalent and the role of the office remains in flux, with firms navigating increased scrutiny around employee work-life balance in a tight labor market. The office must evolve in response to the lessons learned in the pandemic.
Where Are We Now?
The guide offers high-level guidance on what offices ready for the post-pandemic world might entail and cost.
- Supporting mobility and changing work cadences: With an estimated 64% of workers stating that they would or have considered quitting if asked to return to the office full time and no marked decline in productivity noted due to work-from-home, hybrid schedules remain a part of office worker life and a critical evaluation of how the office can best support work is underway. As a result, future office designs will place a greater emphasis on custom collaboration and community spaces, enhancing in person communication.
- Technology-centric design to support new ways of working: A workplace designed for a mobility-focused and partly remote workforce will include a greater share of conference rooms, huddle rooms, and flexibility collaboration spaces that allow for video calls and presentations designed for a virtual-first environment. Audio visual and other supportive tech infrastructure once limited to higher-end build outs is now a baseline requirement for a post-pandemic office.
- Sustainable design and new measures of costs: As almost 90 percent of the global economy is attached to a net-zero carbon goal, sustainability in the built environment has become a first-class measure of value. In order for both occupiers and landlords to achieve science based target initiatives for emissions, fit outs must support long-term sustainability goals.
- Employee wellness supported by the built environment: Part of redefining the office in a post-pandemic work is navigating the impact the built environment has on employee health. From preventing the spread of viral transmission to increasing cognitive function in the office by up to 26 percent, wellness focused design is critical to facilitating return to office at any scale and supporting productivity.
Related Stories
| Dec 12, 2011
Mojo Stumer takes top honors at AIA Long Island Design Awards
Firm's TriBeCa Loft wins "Archi" for interior design.
| Dec 10, 2011
10 Great Solutions
The editors of Building Design+Construction present 10 “Great Solutions” that highlight innovative technology and products that can be used to address some of the many problems Building Teams face in their day-to-day work. Readers are encouraged to submit entries for Great Solutions; if we use yours, you’ll receive a $25 gift certificate. Look for more Great Solutions in 2012 at: www.bdcnetwork.com/greatsolutions/2012.
| Dec 10, 2011
Energy performance starts at the building envelope
Rainscreen system installed at the west building expansion of the University of Arizona’s Meinel Optical Sciences Center in Tucson, with its folded glass wall and copper-paneled, breathable cladding over precast concrete.
| Dec 10, 2011
Turning Balconies Outside In
Operable glass balcony glazing systems provide solution to increase usable space in residential and commercial structures.
| Dec 10, 2011
BIM tools to make your project easier to manage
Two innovations—program manager Gafcon’s SharePoint360 project management platform and a new BIM “wall creator” add-on developed by ClarkDietrich Building Systems for use with the Revit BIM platform and construction consultant—show how fabricators and owner’s reps are stepping in to fill the gaps between construction and design that can typically be exposed by working with a 3D model.
| Dec 9, 2011
BEST AEC FIRMS 2011: EYP Architecture & Engineering
Expertise-Driven Design: At EYP Architecture & Engineering, growing the business goes hand in hand with growing the firm’s people.
| Dec 8, 2011
HDR opens office in Shanghai
The office, located in the Chong Hing Finance Center in Shanghai’s busy Huangpu District, will support HDR’s design efforts throughout Asia.
| Dec 8, 2011
HOK elevates the green office standard
Firm achieves LEED Platinum certification in New York office that overlooks Bryant Park.
| Dec 6, 2011
?ThyssenKrupp acquires Sterling Elevators Services
The acquisition of Sterling Elevator Services Corporation is the third acquisition completed by ThyssenKrupp Elevator AG in the last three months in North America.
| Dec 6, 2011
New office building features largest solar panel system in New Orleans
Woodward Design+Build celebrates grand opening of new green headquarters in Central City.