The pandemic disrupted every aspect of real estate, including landscaping. Post-pandemic, property owners want high-performance landscapes that offer intimate experiences.
"Beyond creating more socially distant workstations, companies have been re-examining amenities that promote physical and mental/emotional health among their teams. These amenities help provide an incentive for returning to the office and enhance productivity by improving employee's moods and sense of well-being," J. Wickham Zimmerman, CEO of Outside the Lines, a leader in water features, rockwork and themed environments, tells GlobeSt.com.
"In the past, amenities like water features were included to beautify and enhance the value of properties, but were all-too-often created as disparate items that only served a single need," says Zimmerman. "Prime examples would be large lawns, or fountains built at property entrances or drop-off roundabouts. While aesthetically pleasing to passersby, these features are not typically designed for more intimate experiences such as sitting near during lunch or a coffee break."
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Owners want more out of the landscaping than before. In place of aesthetically pleasing spaces, owners want spaces that provide a wide range of experiences. "Now we're seeing much higher-performance landscapes and amenities offering a wider range of rich experiences," says Zimmerman. "These spaces range from stimulating and invigorating to calm and serene; the common theme is that they are places where people want to go. With employees having the freedom to work from home or at the office and the possibility of remote working touted as a benefit at many companies, making the workplace a more inviting location has become a key talent acquisition and retention tool."
Water features have been a popular feature as part of a health and wellness services, but the pandemic accelerated the trend. "The focus on health and wellbeing has been evolving for several years; COVID-19 has put a magnifying glass on this and kicked it into overdrive, changing many aspects of how office space is used," says Zimmerman. "As tenants began returning to the workplace, many have shifted their focus to keeping employees safe and healthy—reconfiguring workspaces to increase space between employees and reduce viral transmission risk."
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Kelsi Maree Borland
