| Programs |  |
Photos of this event - Click Here
It was “celebrity night” at the November 9th FM Roundtable at the Grandview Café as members of the Central Ohio IFMA Chapter gathered to discuss facility issues with John and Gary Cooper.
Yep!
While John, interior construction consultant with Continental Office Environments and member of the Central Ohio Chapter, is the son of former Ohio State football coach John Cooper, there is no apparent family relationship between Gary, midwest area real estate manager for Verizon Wireless, and the late film star, whose real name was Frank James Cooper.
Verizon’s Cooper is a member of the Cincinnati IFMA Chapter and was in Columbus to “lend support” to FM Roundtable co-chair Mariah Liggett, who has just joined the company as a senior analyst in the midwest area.
Workspace was the primary area of discussion at the roundtable, and generated varying responses from participants who presented sound arguments and disclosures for both open and closed areas.
Chapter president Dorothy Leachman said contrary to current trends for open areas, students at Ohio State are looking for offices or “hard-wall” space which “blew us away.” Officials there had felt that with all the wireless use open spaces—“more sit-down places”—would be in vogue.
To satisfy students and still be protected, “We are going to use moveable partitions so if the culture changes we can handle it,” she said.
In contrast to this, Vicki Simons, who heads the Columbus office for BHDP Architecture, said studies show there is a shifting from closed to open office environments to get people away from offices and windows.
She said workspace configuration was one of seven facility management issues presented by the International leadership at the 2005 IFMA House of Delegates’ meeting at World Workplace last month in Philadelphia.
It is the International’s contention that “the workplace is becoming less defined by physical attributes and more defined by technology and virtual environments.”
(Chapter members will have an opportunity to review and comment on all of the facility management issues presented at WW. They will be posted on the Web site later this month.)
Simons referred to a WW presentation that breaks the workforce into four distinct generations—Veteran, those born between 1920-43; Boomers, born between 1944-60; Generation X, 1961-79; and Millennials, 1980-2000—who are not necessarily in sync with each other. The trick, according to the presentation, is to create a working atmosphere that brings out the best of each generation.
Barry Widder, roundtable co-chair, said his company, NetJets, is contemplating moving some of its operations to a new facility and is seeking to create a culture that “shows we are in the airline industry.”
In doing so, company officials recently visited the Abercrombie & Fitch home office in New Albany where “they want people to communicate directly, to wear their clothing, and to be outside, regardless of the temperature…a campus-like culture.”
Harry McClure of HLH Systems said “privacy issues need a lot of study because some employees can’t work in an open office environment. You need to work on this in a corporate culture.”
He suggested that facility managers and others need to get human resource departments involved for a “better understanding of who is coming into their departments long before you began creating space.”
Other topics touched on at the roundtable included workspace noise, and building material shortages and price increases created by the destruction of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Leachman said prices of materials needed for infrastructure projects have increased 16 to 22 percent and are only guaranteed for about a week. Renovation of bathrooms at Ohio State that had been estimated at $1.2 million, nearly tripled after the hurricanes hit.
Jim Schmelzer, senior property manager for the General Services Administration, noted a shortage of such things as drywall, concrete, and plumbing-related supplies about a month ago, but added, “Things may have changed by now.”
The chapter’s next roundtable will be at 8 a.m. February 1 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in connection with the 22 Annual Ohio Design & Construction Expo.