Ultimately these business functions are produced for profit making. They are categorized as direct functions (profit making) and indirect functions.  Indirect functions are those that enable the organization to run well. Each of these functions has a strategic set of needs directly related to the business type involved. An office building provides the spaces needed to facilitate these functions.

Direct functions: Trading, Advising, negotiating, controlling, creating and communicating.

Indirect functions: Managing, learning, research, resourcing.

Profit making which is not limited to the tenant but also extends to the building owner or developer based on the function of provided space for lease or sale.

In many instances businesses also serve as owners of office buildings for economic but not limited to economic reasons. Generally, the office building or space serves to reinforce a certain type of image for a business based on factors as site and location, or building form and aesthetic. A good example of this is, Hancock Tower skyscraper in Boston, owned by The John Hancock Insurance Company. Another example is the corporate image produced based on elaborate interiors and the downtown urban location of The Law offices of Foley Hoag and Elliot.

Another building function provided by building owners is termed as flexible space. This type of space allows for the tenant to renovate the space to produce the aesthetic finishes needed to produce their desired image and space that will serve the business type.

At the other end of the scale are signature spaces designed as corporate headquarters for a firm that will use the space to identify itself.  The Getty Center, the Seagram Building and the Hancock Tower would all be examples of this type.  They are distinctive buildings, often named in such a way that discussion of the building, directions to neighboring areas, etc., cause the name of the company to be mentioned, so that the very existence of the building serves as company promotion.  Toward this end, these buildings tend to have spaces much more grand in scale and material quality than would be required by any code, and many amenities not customarily provided would be available.

Within an office space, specific programming requirements need to be fulfilled according to function.  Almost any office requires spaces for reception/waiting area, file storage, clerical areas, individual and/or shared offices, communication systems (phones, servers, PCs, fax machines, copiers…) and conference areas.  But certain sub-types of offices require their own specialized kinds of spaces.  A law office needs a library with easy access to law books and may require multiple conference rooms for meetings between opposing parties and their attorneys.  Privacy is more of an issue in a law firm than in many kinds of offices, so that special attention to construction of partitions would be more critical than in other kinds of offices.  In this society where more and more often people use guns to address their grievances, security would be more of an issue at a law firm, which by its nature attracts people with grievances.

Medical Offices need space for various types of medical equipment such as exam tables, BP cuffs, and medical gasses within  exam rooms.  X-ray machines, shielding and film storage have their own space and constructional requirements.  While more and more disposable robes and such are used, a laundry still may be needed.  Spaces for sterilization of equipment and storage of bio-hazardous materials are also issues here.

Architecture and engineering firms, while more and more computer-based, still often need room for large drafting tables.  Computer screens are likely to be larger in such firms than in offices where computers are used primarily for word processing, and so deeper work counters may be beneficial.  Print rooms and plotters require space both for the large machines and supplies, while the old blueprint machines had the added issue of ammonia use and the venting necessary to accompany that.  Flat files and roll storage may require more space than storage in a generic office.

The following is a list of some location criteria:

Hotels, restaurants, banks, health clubs, day care facilities, open spaces with visibility, public parks, mall or shopping center, strong pedestrian linkages, integrated urban settings and public transportation

Shared tenant spaces: Telecommunications services, Internet stations, modem pooling, office automation, building management, health clubs, security, staff rooms and parking.

Primary spaces would be those that are exclusive to a single business type. These spaces are further categorized as follows:

Primary spaces: The principle work spaces housing the core activities.  These are spaces for solitary work, spaces for collective work, group spaces.

Ancillary Spaces: Contain functions which support an individual work group or department.  Paper processing center, filing centers, refreshment points, toilets.

Support Spaces: Contain functions that support the work of the whole organization.  Spaces include reception areas, libraries, training suites, auditoria, mail rooms, reprographic units, archives, medical centers.

Social Spaces: Spaces relating to with the non-work activities of the occupants.  Restaurants and cafes, shops, clubrooms and bars, health centers, retreats,  daycare.

Service Spaces: Contain functions to do with the operations and maintenance of the building.  Workshops, staff rooms, stores, plant rooms.

Circulation spaces: Spaces to do with movement around the office. Lifts and lobbies, escalators, staircases, refuges, corridors, passages, delivery areas and goods lifts.

Home spaces: Home office linked to main office.

The royal court was the other venue for writing and record keeping.  Monarchs often had multiple palaces, and the members of the royal court would move with the monarch from one to the next.

In the Italian Renaissance, the palazzo was home to the bankers and served as their place of business.  As with the signature spaces of today, the loftiness of the palazzo would convey something about the stature of the banker. Churches served much of the function of town offices today, and the parish church was the keeper of vital records.  As the majority of the population was illiterate, traveling scribes were brought into people’s homes to record transactions between them, sort of early lawyers making house calls.  They carried their writing implements with them and would sit down at the family table to conduct their business.

Precedents to today’s office buildings include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building (Buffalo, 1904), which is especially notable in its attention to the structure of work.  Secretaries were to sit between the men for whom they worked, with higher ups looking down from above.

The tall buildings that mark today’s metropolises, most notably Chicago and New York, are largely office buildings.  The Monadnock Building (Chicago, 1889-91) by Burnham & Root was a great masonry structure preceding the slender steel structures of today.  New York’s 1930 Chrysler Building is a prime example of a beautiful building whose name reminds the world of the company for which it was built.  In Boston we have I M Pei and Henry N Cobb’s Hancock Tower of 1977.

In addition to these grand examples, we have the less proud, more utilitarian examples of industrial parks.  These and common office buildings of two to five or eight or ten story office buildings are found in profusion.

Current Trends in office spaces are strongly influenced by the technologies that allow us to communicate across greater distances in a larger number of ways and with ever greater speed and ease.  Lengthy commutes and issues of traffic and parking also help encourages todays companies and workers to find new solutions to ways of doing office work.  Telecommuting retains a link to a traditional base office, but involves spending some or nearly all of the telecommuter’s time at an office within is or her home.

Many people establish home offices, separating a room in their homes where, ideally, they can keep out much of the distraction of family life to be able to get work done, but are still able to be at home when their families require it.  Those who prefer to work non-traditional hours can especially benefit from such an arrangement.  Again, the home office avoids the transportation issues involved in traditional office work.

Virtual offices have become a thing of the present.  Ocean Group is a firm comprised of designers in Helsinki, Oslo, and Cologne who “practice together in a paperless office located in cyberspace” (New York Times Magazine, 5 December 1999, p 128).  With laptops and wireless modems, really only access to power is required to maintain this kind of office, which can travel easily around the world.

Mobile Offices are more of a low-tech version of today’s traveling offices.  Trailers serve as temporary field offices for construction sites, bookmobiles, and health services for rural areas.

Trade Periodicals
BOMA Experience Exchange Report.  By Building Owners and Managers Assoc. Int’l.  Annual, Washington DC.
Income/Expense Analysis.  Offfice Buildings, downtown and suburban. Institute of Real Estate Management. Annual, Chicago, IL.
The National Office Market: History and future prospects.  William C Wheaton & Raymond G Torto,  Annual, MIT.
Rehabilitating Historic Office Buildings. William G. MacRostie.  Washington DC: National Park Service, 1982.
Skyscraper Management.  Building Owners and Managers Assoc. Int’l. Annual, Washington DC.
The Spaulding & Slye Report.  The Greater Boston Market.  Quarterly, Burlington, MA.

Websites
Aptus workstations. http://www.workenv.com  Aptus workstation is one you have to see for yourself.  A unit that functions as seat, desk, and computer housing all in one, can stand alone or be integrated into an existing cubicle.  Furniture and computer hardware in one.

Automate Info. http://www.automateinfo.com/doc/paperlessoffice.htm.  This site describes a business machine to fax, scan and store information, intended to reduce need for storage space in offices.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Executive Office of Administration and Finance, Division of Capital Asset Management, The Office of Leasing and State Office Planning, Martha Goldsmith, Director.  http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/cam/dcpsop.htm.  “The Office of Leasing and State Office Planning works with client agencies to determine their current and future needs for leased space and assists them in procuring space from private and public commercial property owners.”

Space Solutions. http://www.space-solutions.com/home_fr.html.  Space solutions for technological firms.  They help make work spaces with the flexibility to grow as tech firms grow.

Staples – www.staples.com.  office supply store.

Workplace Innovations Inc. http://www.townusa.com/workplace/workinno.htm. Provides “Full Service Consulting to the Home Business, Home Office, and Telecommuting Business Segments”.  “At WorkPlace Innovations, Inc. we help you decide if a home office setting is the right decision. We are dedicated to providing innovative ideas to assist you in making your home business or telecommuting program a success.
“Tell us, and we will help you in creating your ideal home office setting, be it on the ski slope, favorite fishing lake or from your home. Nobody knows the other work place better than WorkPlace Innovations, Inc.“

Williams Scotsman Inc. www.willscot.com.  Builders of mobile offices.

As far as the Massachusetts Building Code is concerned, office buildings fall under Use Group B.  This group includes “all buildings and structures which are occupied for the transaction of business, for the rendering of professional services, or for other services that involve stocks or goods, wares or merchandise in limited quantities which are incidental to office occupancies or sample purposes.”(780 CMR Sec. 304)

Maximum heights and areas of all buildings and structures between exterior walls or between exterior walls and firewalls are set in 780 CMR Table 503.

In general there are three types of offices: Private Offices, Semi-private Offices and Open Offices.

A private office is designed for one person only.  Private offices should be assigned primarily for functional reasons, i.e., nature of work, visitor traffic or for security reasons. Private offices should only be large enough for the occupant to conduct his normal business with a reasonable degree of dignity. A frequent justification for a private office is to impress visiting representatives of the industry, and the general public, with the importance or dignity of the official being contacted.  Assignment of private offices and the type of partitioning to be used are issues to be settled by top management acting on the advice and recommendations of the space planner. The offices of many top executives of large, nationally known companies are less than 250 square feet each. The provision of a private office, or too large a private office, for a government official, may give the taxpayers an adverse impression.  It is desirable that private offices be a minimum of 100 sq. ft. and a maximum of 300 sq. ft. each in size, depending upon the requirements of the occupant.  Only in cases where it is necessary for the occupant to meet with delegations of 10 or more people, at least once a day, should the size approach 300 sq. ft.  For the average government function, the private office should not exceed 200 sq. ft.

The semi-private office is a room occupied by two or more individuals.  Generally, the need to house members of a work team or other groups of employees, assigned to a common task is an acceptable justification for semi-private accommodations. These offices can be enclosed by ceiling-high, three-quarter-high, or bank-type partitions.  Because of the loss of flexibility introduced by the use of the partitions required to enclose these offices, the same rigid review given private offices should be employed.  These offices usually range in size from 150-400 sq. ft.

In general “office space” refers to an open area occupied by a number of employees, supervisors, furnishings, equipment, and circulation area. Large open areas permit flexibility and effective utilization of space, aid office communications, provide better light and ventilation, reduce space requirements, make possible better flow of work, simplify supervision, and eliminate partition costs. In many cases, however, open space housing for more than 50 persons should be subdivided either by use of file cabinets, shelving, railing or low bank-type partitions.

There is no rule set in stone regarding space allowances; however, below you will see some guidelines which have been established from a large number of surveys made on offices, both commercial and governmental.

Occupant:                                                  Square feet
Top executive. .……………………………………. 400-600
Junior executives …………………………………..100-200
Supervisors …………………………………………. 80-100
Operator at 60 in. desk ……………………………. 55
Operator at 55 in. desk ……………………………. 50
Operator at 45 in. desk ……………………………. 45

The cost of each office varies between types of companies.  For example, office headquarters of a large company are far more expensive than offices used by a small company.  In an attempt to estimate cost for a random office, the price would range from approximately $130/sq.ft. to around $200/sq.ft.

As far as open area workstations are concerned, the space allocated to these workstations is based on the furniture and equipment necessary to perform the work assigned as well as on circulation area. The space assigned for any specific workstation may be increased due to special furniture and equipment requirements associated with a particular position.

Circulation is the area required to conveniently permit ingress and egress the size of an aisle should be governed by the amount of traffic it bears. The following standards with regard to internal circulation will be applied in space planning surveys:

1. Aisles leading to main exits from areas which carry substantial traffic (main aisles) should be 60 in. wide.

2. Aisles which carry a moderate amount of traffic (intermediate aisles) should be 48 in. wide.

3. Aisles between rows of desks (secondary aisles) should be approximately 36 inches wide.

Workstation furnishings depend more on the options available than on conventions. Office layout is typically structured by independent workstations or clustered groupings (i.e., workcenters) organized in a variety of configurations. Within these configurations, electronic equipment as well as other furnishings are typically shared or assigned to an individual workstation. Configuration patterns tend to support adjacency requirements of people to people and define zones or departmental boundaries within the work area. The key to a successful workstation furnishing is that it supports a sustained and time-efficient interface between people and machines. Complaints of eye strain, fatigue, musculo-skeletal problems and negative attitudes toward the quality of work life have been shown repeatedly to stem from association with VDTs. Prevention of these problems depends upon workstation specifications that comply with two principal furnishing design criteria:

1. All components are designed to accommodate the specific task and equipment requirements. This involves examining the configuration alternatives and integrating the workstation design with building system requirements.

2. All components are engineered to support the physical and psychological needs of the user. This factor involves the design quality of the product, that is, detailing and construction that permit flexibility in size, shape, height, configuration, ease of use and adaptability.

Storage and filing components such as lateral file banks, shelving cabinets and media closets come in a variety of sizes and shapes and, as such, become planning elements within either open or closed floor spaces. File banks and cabinets provide physical separation between work areas, visual privacy, spatial definition, and partial acoustic control when sheathed with sound-retardant panels. They can also been used to introduce color, planting, and signage into the office interior.

Cost
There has to be a limit as to what goes into an office space to be able to make money.  If the products are too expensive, the owner won’t be able to make up the cost except in the rent.  The office space will be too expensive to rent and a potential tenant will go somewhere else.

Products
What products can be used to utilize an office space?  There are many products that can be used to make an office space more affordable without losing it’s durability.  Space organizers and carpet are a couple that come to mind when thinking about staying affordable without losing durability and space.  Space organizers allow for limiting space for employees so their office doesn’t start filtering into other parts of the office.

Handicap Accessibility
There are always problems with handicap accessibility especially in older buildings.  Elevators, ramps and handrails are three components that are recognizable problems that only a few people will complain about and is usually too costly for an owner to fix.  Therefore the problem is left alone and the less fortunate will suffer.

Mechanical Systems
Many buildings have mechanical system problems.  The HVAC systems are one of the most important aspects of a building and an office space.  Business owners rely on mechanical systems to run well because if they don’t, their business will suffer.  The comfort of each employee extremely important because it will reflect the performance of the employee and if an employee is uncomfortable, their work will suffer.  Mechanical systems are often overlooked because they are very expensive to fix or update.  If there are 10 floors in a building and one floor complains about being uncomfortable, 9 times out of 10 nothing will be done about it because there isn’t a majority complaining.

Lighting
Lighting systems are another potential problem in office spaces.  If a business is running mostly computers, you don’t want to have mostly fluorescent down-lights.  It is very hard on computer operator’s eyes and is often overlooked because of the potential expense to the owner.

Individuals
There are three interior office designers that are well known in the interior field.  They have written books, been published in magazines and their ideas are mirrored because of the unique style that each of them have and their interiors utilize the most allowable space without taking away from the essence of the space.

Fabio Lombardo 
“I believe that a man does not have a magnitude that is difficult to understand, in other words that what we intend saying may be imparted in an extremely simple way.”

Umberto Riva 
“Work is not a separate dimension from man, and therefore the office environment must conform to the rules for living and working well."

Afra y Tobia Scarpa 
“It is necessary to integrate the new requirements of organization that together requests order and flexibility with the requests of a better perceptive experience."

Organizations
American Society of Interior Designers (ASID)
ASID is the definitive resource for professional education and knowledge sharing, advocacy of interior designer rights to practice, and expansion of interior design markets.  They are a collaboration of ideas that can be built on and expanded into the interior design field.

International Interior Design Association (IIDA)
IIDA is a professional networking and educational association committed to enhancing the quality of life through excellence in interior design and advancing interior design through knowledge.

American Institute of Architects (AIA)
AIA is a professional networking and educational association committed to enhancing the quality of life through excellence in architecture and advancing architecture through knowledge.

Design Firms
There are many design firms in the greater Boston area let alone all over the United States and the World. 

IBOffice is an internationally renown design firm which bases their design on being aware of the importance of the quality of work-places which are a crucial element for a better productivity and proposes to solve the different demands of the interpretation of the environment. 

Corporate Interiors is a world-renowned design firm providing interior design, furnishings, and facility services.  They create distinctive environments that work, while enhancing their client’s image. 

Visnick & Caulfield is a Boston based firm that specializes in office space design. 

Office Environments of New England, who are well known in the Boston area, outfit office spaces; interior layouts and they design resource. 

ADD Inc. who is a Boston based firm does a lot of office space work.  One of their known works is Parametric Technologies.