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Office design

October

The Commons coworking space on George Street in the Sydney CBD.

Co-working spaces back with a vengeance in work-from-home era

The pandemic – and bad behaviour – put an end to the 2010s boom. Now the sector is staging a quiet comeback as businesses look for flexibility.

September

Karaoke, self-serve matcha and free lunch: Is this how to end WFH?

Nothing is too out of the box for Pinterest’s new Sydney space, which feels more like a wellness studio than an office.

August

The open plan offices, with subtle sand hues, have a distinctly relaxed feel.

How AI will cut staff and reshape offices

Design firm Hassell’s latest global survey shows how the uptake of artificial intelligence will have a significant effect on workplace design and space needs.

July

Mirvac investment head Richard Seddon with Daibiru Corp’s Takashi Tomoda.

Mirvac says Melbourne office market is stabilising

The Victorian capital will get just three new office towers between now and 2030. The landlord and investor says that will drive tenants to its new building.

June

Lou Weis, co owner of 124 Exhibition St oversaw the renovation of a tired 1971, 11 storey office tower in central Mlebourne.

How to spend $10m retrofitting a D-grade office building

Australia’s commercial property industry lacks the skills to upgrade its existing building stock for changing times, one office tower owner says.

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March

Winc delivers about 3 million orders a year to 39,000 customers.

Office supplies giant Winc flaunts billion-dollar revenue; sale flyer out

Winc is being shopped with a 6 per cent EBIT margin for 2025, with the sale documents pitching it as more profitable than ASX-listed distributors like EBOS and Dicker Data.

January

Vacant in Sydney: Pedestrians in front of the 28-level 39 Martin Place tower, which opened last year, giving office stock in the CBD a boost.

Don’t say Trump, but return to office will pick up: property bosses

Heads of the country’s largest commercial landlords avoid commenting on the US president’s executive order. But they want workers back.

One Vanderbilt in New York’s Midtown Manhattan.

What the top 2024 US office deals reveal about the year ahead

Movement in the troubled office sector shows owners did what they had to do to strike a deal, pointing to more activity in 2025.

December 2024

Australia Post HQ in Richmond, Melbourne.

Welcome to Australia Post’s HQ. Just don’t call it the HQ

The postal service has ditched its high-profile head office in a Melbourne skyscraper for a humble yet high-tech building in the suburbs. It’s all about the vibe.

October 2024

The Chanticleer podcast features James Thomson and Anthony Macdonald.

Billionaires behaving badly | Wall Street royalty | Why offices should be like hotels

This week, James and Anthony dive into the drama surrounding two billionaire founders, interview Wall Street royalty, and poke about in some of Sydney’s primo office real estate.

September 2024

Arup Queensland director Lloyd Twomey at the consultancy’s new office in Brisbane.

Table tennis, hot-desking are so 2019. Offices are changing again

Many offices are out of date with post-pandemic usage patterns, but there are signs of stabilisation for the first time since the disruption of the pandemic.

Chris Lucas in front of his new project Batard at the top of Bourke Street in Melbourne.

Why Chris Lucas’ new top-end Melbourne venue won’t be a private club

The city’s restaurant king reveals his $45 million plan for a four-level venue known as Batard at the top end of Bourke Street.

ISPT’s renovated 500 Bourke Street office tower in Melbourne.

How this office building is saving money – and carbon

This retrofit saved 57,000 tonnes of embodied carbon emissions, as companies rethink the design of office buildings.

July 2024

This is the new normal for working from home and commuting into the office.

This is the new normal of office life

Flexible working patterns in a decent place that makes it easy to do the job you’re paid for is a basic recipe for success in a post-pandemic world.

June 2024

The $10 million renovation by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer of Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Campbell House private office in Sydney’s Woollahra won the top NSW award for commercial architecture. 

Cannon-Brookes’ $10m office reno tops architecture awards

The focus on giving new life to old buildings is crucial at a time when preserving embodied carbon of existing buildings is an increasing priority.

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May 2024

Allens to be king of the hill in Sydney’s new legal district

Allens and four other law firms are set to move into the revamped AMP building at Circular Quay as a new legal district in Sydney develops towards the harbour.

April 2024

The entrance to the classified workspace area at a Nooks site in Crystal City, Virginia.

Welcome to WeWork for spies

In this co-working space, only the cappuccino isn’t classified. Servicing the spook sector is a rare bright spot in the market for office facilities,

January 2024

Jolena Podolsky in her cubicle at Simon & Schuster offices in Manhattan.

As office workers make their return, so does the lowly cubicle

Cubicles, like scrunchies, are back, spurred by demand from employers and employees alike.

NYC’s financial district gets luxury apartments in office tower

New York mayor Eric Adams has been pushing for residential overhauls to address city’s severe housing shortage, especially where office vacancies have soared.

December 2023

Open for business: Ray Lawler, right, US developer Hines’ CEO APAC and Hines’ senior managing director for Australia David Warneford at their completed T3 Collingwood building at 36 Wellington Street on the fringe of the Melbourne CBD.

High land prices stalling office developments: Hines

Land values have yet to adjust to rising cost and the price of debt, the developer and fund manager says.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/office-design-1mt0