After months of planning and logistics, we successfully moved
our Providence team into a new office building at 15 Park Row West.
It's a great location right next to the train station, across the
street from the mall, and adjacent to the Providence River basin
and the heart of Waterfire.
It's only a five minute walk from our old offices but feels like a
different world.
Why did we move? First of all, we had outgrown our past offices
to the point where we were split between two different buildings in
several different floors and suites. We wanted to be in a single
space where teams could collaborate more freely. Secondly, we
wanted to be closer to the train station so that Boston-area
commuters could have the easiest commute of their careers (Back
Bay, South Station, or any commuter rail station directly to our
front door). Thirdly, we wanted to be in a building with lots of
expansion space so we knew we'd have room to grow.
There were a few guiding principles we used to design our new
space. The days of being tethered to a hardwired desktop computer
are long over, and work is much more mobile now. We've chosen to
prioritize common space and meeting rooms over private offices or
high-walled cubes. Our workstations are 5x2' desks with low
dividers to encourage collaboration, and we've got lots of open
space with lounge chairs, open meeting tables, and wi-fi with tons
of bandwidth so employees can take their laptops or iPads and work
any way they're comfortable. In fact, I'm sitting in a lounge chair
right now overlooking the Rhode Island State House (see picture
below of the view). We've also got lots of small huddle rooms with
space for small meetings or phone calls for when employees need
privacy. And these principles apply to everyone - not even the big
shots have private offices.
Here are some pictures from our first day:
Lounge area integrated with team workstations
Example of team bullpen (still unpacking!)
Another lounge area (still waiting on some furniture)
More team bullpens and workstations
The view from our front windows (with the help of an Instagram filter)