TUSTIN, CA—A ubiquitous term in the brokerage world, “creative office” is often a misnomer. Nicholas Ilagan, director of property management for Sperry Van Ness, recently moderated the “What's Trending Now?” panel at the IREM OC conference, during which this topic arose. We spoke with him about why designers dislike the term “creative space” and what else came up during the session.

GlobeSt.com: What were the most important points made during your session at the IREM OC event?

Ilagan: The focus was on getting away from the term creative office. You hear it so much among the brokerage and developer/owner community, but design firms cringe at it. The term has become so ingrained in people. But, aside from getting away from the term “creative office” and toward the term “innovative workspaces” is that the term has become so abused and watered down. you just drive around town and see any office building you come across being billed as creative office. But you can't fake it with Millennials. Just throwing an accent wall in an office or painting the outside of a building doesn't do it. We covered the 10 aspects of innovative workspaces, and one of the big things was that we have to define what innovate workspaces are and you can't fake it with Millennials.

There's a functional obsolescence in both the commercial and multifamily side of things. Eric Olsen from TCA Architects was talking about how living spaces as they pertain to multifamily are going to become denser. It's still more about the amenity. He also talked about how it's not just the Millennials driving the changes in multifamily, but we're seeing a huge wide spectrum of demographics—empty-nesters, different cultures, larger families as well—all drawn to multifamily. It's not just a Millennial push.

On the commercial side, Anne Bretana from Gensler talked about amenities as they pertain to commercial spaces. We've seen this trend over the last seven to 10 years where owners and managers have focused on redesigning lobbies, and now it's become outdoor spaces, so what's the next push? It's geared toward trends and education: as you're turning things into innovative workspaces, where owners want to have open ceilings, it's helping those owners and developers understand that it's not just about demo—there's a lot more thought about maintenance and upkeep that has to go into changing these environments. For example, with an open ceiling, you'll have more dust. How will you deal with that?

GlobeSt.com: What are some of the emerging trends you're seeing in innovative-space development?

Ilagan: Once you've done the lobby and outside of the building, the next big thing is landscaping. With the drought, succulents and drought-resistant plants are becoming more popular. Then, moving back inside, there are Title 24-related energy efficiencies. You have to consider, if you go floor-to-ceiling windows, that lets a lot more heat in, so how are you dealing with some of those things?

But the next big step is flexibility in units. How do you create flexible solutions to the user will be able to change their space as their business changes? It's not about putting up or tearing down walls, but more about movable partitions and things of that nature.

You also have to think about the common areas inside the space. We've seen the square-footage allocation per employee moving down in the last seven to 10 years, but there may be a slight adjustment back up. They may be using smaller amounts of space for their immediate workspace, but companies are creating more common spaces with kitchen or lounge areas that allow employees to work in different parts of the office with their laptop.

GlobeSt.com: What else came out of the event about multifamily trends?

Ilagan: Configuration is becoming more important in multifamily, as in the number of bedrooms. In a huge development at Eric Olsen's firm did, the corner unlit is no longer a leased-out space but a common-area living room. It's rather like a dorm-lounge concept. Living in Southern California, you want to be out of your home area more than in it, so outside amenities and common areas are important. In addition, there's competition with overseas and cash buyers. Multifamily is still wildly successful for those reasons.