Small Lobby On a Start Up Budget

Startups are always finding themselves faced with the lobby problem. They get small space with and even smaller lobby. There are few issues that always seem to come up.

1. How many people can sit in this lobby?
2. We don’t want to spend a lot, but we want it to look nice.
3. We don’t have a receptionist, how do we outfit for that?

Let’s deal with the how many people issue first. This tends to be a non-issue when most people look into it. Generally, in most lobbies at startups, the people that come to visit don’t have an appointment and won’t be sitting for long. If it is a big group, it is usually a board meeting and the people end up going right into the boardroom to wait.

Two chairs will almost always work. Since most meetings are with one person, this will accommodate up to two different visiting parties. If there are more than two there at once, it usually isn’t for very long, and they can stand. Always put an end table between the two chairs. This is a good spot for company brochures or a magazine. (Tip: Don’t put out your old trade magazines like, Capacitor Weekly or C++ News. These are only interesting to a very limited group of people who probably already work at your company. Put out more general interest magazines like Time or Fortune or possibly the Wall Street Journal. But keep them up-to-date.)

One more digression on the two chairs theme - don’t get a loveseat, two seat couch. Only one person will sit on this. Two men especially won’t sit together on a loveseat. Spend a little more for two chairs. You can spring for wood chairs, with a padded seat if you want to save money. Just make sure they match the wood on the end table. This will also help with the cost issue.

Finally, you do not have a receptionist. A reception station, even a small one, still makes a welcoming statement. The counter says, go here to check in. I know some people just put a table with a phone, but it screams, unprofessional and no revenue! Place a phone on the counter with a list of employee extensions. Make sure there is an obvious number to call if they don’t know whom they are seeking. This helps for delivery people and obnoxious furniture sales people.

The following is a sample budget for new furniture that outfits a small lobby in a professional manner and keep everything under $2000.

Laminate Reception Station $900
2 Wood Side Chairs - $500
Wood End Table - $300

Don’t end up looking like a Doctor’s Office or a College Dorm. Get a real lobby.

Herman Miller Action Office 2 - My Favorite System

I love working with Herman Miller Action Office Series 2 (AO2) as a used option. The reasons are endless.

- Huge Installed Base
- Easily Refrabricated
- Wood Panels can be easily cut
- Clone product is available
- Easy and fast to install

There are probably more AO2 stations in existing inventory than any other system. This is because Action Office has been continually manufactured since 1968. AO2, with the fixed, four-circuit electrical base, has been in service since the 80s. All action office components work with AO2 no matter what generation or when they were made. So product compatibility is assured.

AO2 is easily refabricated. You can change the fabric on AO2 quite easily. There are many people in almost every major U.S.
city who can do the remanufacturing. So if you have some, you can always get more to match without buying new.

You can cut down AO2 panels. Almost every other cubicle system has panels with metal frames. If you want to cut one to a lower height or a narrower width, you need a blowtorch and a welder. With AO2, you just need a saw. I recently had a client that loved some 6x8 AO2 cubicles I had, but their space was not quite big enough. Solution: we cut panels from 48 wide to 42 wide and made them 6x7.5.

Third Party clones exist for AO2. When the patents expired for Action Office several years back, several folks started making components that work with Herman Miller’s AO2. Called clones by the industry, these parts are less expensive and can often be purchased from existing stock. Also, anyone who makes good quality laminate worktops can make them for the stations as well.

Some of the clone folks have even come up with add-ons not made by Herman Miller. Window inserts of various sizes and materials, unusual heights, white board panels, 120-degree connectors, even a door that slid into the panel, called a pocket door. The pocket door was so popular that Herman Miller bought the patent and discontinued the manufacture of it, killing a competitor.

Recently Herman Miller lost a 300 station job to one of these clone manufacturers. They couldn’t compete on price.

There is even a green version made from locally sourced and re-used components with fabric from plastic bottles called GQA.

Finally, the system is by far the fastest and easiest to install. No tiles, no special tools and the panels are light to carry. No wonder installers also like AO2 the best.

Open versus Collaborative Environments

Whenever I am planning spaces for customers the issue of privacy versus openness comes up. Do we want our people to collaborate in an open environment? Or do we want more privacy so people can concentrate and do their work?

This often comes up as an issue of tall panels versus short. But it also incorporates, cubicle size, station orientation (Do I sit with my back to the opening or facing the opening?), who gets private offices and common areas like conference rooms, "all-hands areas" and informal "bean bag" areas.

Mark Erickson from Mark Erickson and Associates says it involves hi-tech versus hi-touch. "People often think they are communicating, when they are really only talking through their computers. The contact with other people is often missing."

With Mark's help, we came up with three phrases, probably not original, that describe the scenarios we see most often.

CAVE - where private offices and/or large cubicles, 8x8 or larger, with tall walls of at least 66 inches in height are used. Conference rooms are available for meetings as well.

CAVE and COMMONS - with tall cubes or mixed-height cubes where open areas are liberally interspersed throughout the space. These can be both formal conference rooms and informal areas for ad-hoc meetings.

OPEN COLLABORATIVE - with typically smaller cubes with height of less that 53" so that you can see throughout the space when standing. These may also include areas just loaded with tables. Open Collaborative spaces often have lot's of conference rooms for private meetings as well. (Above; Photo of Teknion workstation at Zazzle.)

I will be profiling different users in future blogs to point out the plusses and minuses of each design. Stay tuned.

SRK

How many people will fit in this office space?

I am often asked how many people will fit in an office space when a broker or customer is considering taking it. Off course, without knowing what size offices and cubicles and many other issues, there is no exact answer. But there is a rule-of-thumb I use that is usually pretty close.

I call it five-per-thousand. Five people for every one thousand square feet of usable space seems to be a pretty good rule. Usable space is the space you are actually occupying, not counting load factors like common (shared with other tenants) hallways, lobby, bathrooms and other things often added into the "rentable" square footage you are paying for.

As an example, if you are considering a 20,000 square foot space. Multiply five times the number of square feet in thousands. Twenty times five is one hundred. So about one hundred people will fit in a 20,000 space.

Mitigating factors can push this number off. So if the space contains warehouse space, labs, an excessive number of private offices or a grandiose lobby with spiral staircase and customer lounge, you might not get so many people in the space.

Also, you might want to think about parking. If the building only gives you three spaces per thousand square feet, you might be out of parking before every seat is occupied. Or do like Google and hire a fleet of buses to get people from public transit to the office.

Scott R. Kline
Smart Interiors, Inc.