There’s been much in the press lately about the future of theoffice and what shape it will take in this post-GenY,post-recession, post-technology environment. The question thatkeeps recurring—as Boomers retire and HR folks turn to the nextgeneration, as corporate space allocations continue to shrink andas digital devices free us from our office desks—is, what is theimportance of place?

It was the topic of conversation for my keynote panel at the BOMA EveryBuilding Conference in Seattle in June, and is treated in-depth inthe upcoming issue of Better Buildings, in JenniferLeClaire’s insightful feature, The Brave New World—In Your OfficeBuilding. Indeed, all of these factors (probably the economy least,or at least most short-term, of all) are working major changes onthe way we work and the shape of where we work.

But does shrinking space mean a subsequent shrinkage in theimportance of place? Of course not, as CoreNetGlobal points out in its recently released CorporateReal Estate 2020 report. According to its membership survey, 60% ofrespondents agree with the following statement: Alternativeworkplace strategies such as the virtual office will play aconspicuous role in some sectors, but physical place willpredominate when we consider the totality of corporate real estate.By comparison, the total of those who disagree, strongly disagreeor were neutral on the subject barely broke 15%.