IRVINE, CA—Next-generation office buildings are the next trend in office development, if you look at the emergent use of this term by developers. Given the Irvine Co.'s plans to develop six next-gen campus office buildings in Irvine Spectrum, we spoke exclusively with Irvine Co. Office Properties' president Doug Holte to get his take on what this product is and why it works in the Orange County market.

GlobeSt.com: What place do “next-gen” office buildings have in the Orange County market?

Holte: First of all, creative office is becoming a term that means everything and nothing. It can mean a freestanding building that has contemporary or even industrial materials inside and other treatments that make it like a home. Sometimes it's an old brick-and-timber building that creates a lifestyle experience with immediate access to other conveniences and experiences.

We selected the term “next generation” because it balances the desire of most industries to provide workspaces that don't force a tradeoff between efficiency and productivity and collaborative contemporary features and materials. Next-generation campus office buildings offer the informality most companies desire for their buildings: immediate access to attractive outdoor spaces and a lower-scale set of buildings that don't place you into a high-rise business environment. A lot of companies are looking for productivity and efficiency—efficient and flexible workspaces but also on-site and close-by amenities that create time efficiencies. At our new campuses, there will be common areas, or commons, so people from multiple companies can come together in an environment that's not unlike a college-campus environment. It's the type of environment that small to mid-size companies would not have access to otherwise.

This complements the existing portfolio that we and others have of traditional high-rise office buildings, and we're choosing to place these campuses into central locations that are more easily accessed by a wide range of residential communities. This exposes us to a wider range of the workforce. The Spectrum, for Orange County, is really the center of all future growth for all office and retail space. Putting these offices into the Center addresses people's desire for efficiency of time, and we can acquire a workforce from a wider radius of employees.

It's also a reflection of our company's roots of community building with outdoor amenities—employees can access trails or ride their bike to the beach. Irvine Ranch offers these together with these contemporary office buildings—the merging of the Orange County lifestyle with premium-quality workspace.

GlobeSt.com: In what types of markets do these buildings work best and worst?

Holte: Our perspective is that they work best when there are at least two conditions. First, you need a sufficient critical mass of companies and a workforce that can support various conveniences and amenities that can be accessed on foot or bike without having to get into your car—amenities like food, fitness or a meeting space. The buildings on Sand Canyon Blvd. can access all of these conveniences on bike or foot. Second, they work best in places where there is wonderful weather and you can actually conduct business outdoors. These buildings will have operable doors and windows, and employees can walk onto outdoor patios and plazas. That may not work as well in cold-weather or extremely hot-weather climates, but it works well in our markets in California.

GlobeSt.com: What do you see as the key elements in developing “next-gen” office buildings?

Holte: Choice of food and fitness experiences. We've done a lot of customer research, and we've found that their employees are looking for choice of food (fine dining, informal, grab-and-go, food trucks) in buildings designed to accept on-demand food experiences where they either come to you or provide walk-to-food in the neighborhood. Also, fitness experiences—the buildings we are developing will be set up so you can take a walk through wonderful gardens, participate in the Irvine Co.'s bike-share program or do yoga or indoor fitness. Also key are choices of gathering places for business meetings for small or large groups indoors or outdoors. These projects will accommodate that.

So, it's about choice and convenience, but also architecturally—companies prefer flexible workspace that's designed so they can physically shrink and grow over time without building inefficiencies. They want an open plan of a physical layout that grows or shrinks to modify their interior workspace over time. It's a very versatile physical product in shape and form, and it will also offer best-of-class exterior glass systems that allow democratizing daylight, where everybody in the company enjoys natural daylight. It will have 10-ft.-high glass so everyone gets to enjoy the California outdoors even when they're inside. Historically in our business, the power play was to own the daylight. These buildings say, “Why should the boss be the only one to own daylight?”

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this type of development?

Holte: For us, this office-product type is a reflection of workplace trends we've heard from customers, but it's also the Irvine Co.'s distinct brand of workplace community where you can grow relationships, and enjoy a great lifestyle. We have a 50-year history of building great communities, and this extends into our office product.