Creative Office Parks

The Googleplex in Silicon Valley

The Creative office park is the scaling of creative offices into a campus setting to emulate the campus experience achieved by cutting edge silicon valley technology companies like Google or Facebook.

Creative office started in Los Angeles as the conversion of industrial buildings into office space while maintaining the industrial architectural features of the original space. These features included the high exposed original ceilings (usually sandblasted), brick or concrete walls, and polished cement floors. Posts, beams, steel, pipe were left all exposed. The space was first used by artist and art galleries, architects and designers, then entertainment companies, then advertising firms, and finally technology companies. The term morphed to include exposing the structural elements of any building by removing drywall and exposing the structural ceilings.

For a while, innovation in this area came from entertainment firms concerned with the architectural aesthetics of the space and how it would represent their artistic image. Now innovation is coming from the technology area to allow higher densities and cool workplaces for their younger more tech savvy employees. At first, artists defined the category followed by the artists in the entertainment industry. Now, technology firms are defining the category, not only as a style but as a way of working in a more collaborative, dense, and amenity rich environment.

Creative office parks are grouping of creative office buildings that offer google-like outdoor collaboration space and amenities for the workers who work in the park. These amenities may include gyms, volleyball courts, dog runs, vegetable gardens, bicycle storage and repair, cafes, and social areas that might be found on the roof of a W hotel.