When architect Chris Brokaw toils behind a glass wall facing Washington’s eclectic Dupont Circle, his thoughts often drift from structures and blueprints to the nuances of street life: lip-locked couples, homeless people, wandering tourists.
This June, Brokaw’s creative flow was interrupted by a topless woman sauntering by during the annual Gay Pride parade.
The 43,000-square-foot architectural wonder known as the Euram Building is among the city’s most celebrated buildings and houses his firm, Oldham + Partners. But others find unique uses for its unusual see-through structure. It recently doubled as headquarters for a police drug sting, with officers peering outside and communicating with wired undercover agents roaming the circle.
Despite such distractions, Brokaw insists he enjoys his working conditions.
“It’s nice to feel like you’re part of the city,” he says. Indeed, he’s in a fishbowl.
Glass offices are the Cadillac of workplaces, a glimmering status symbol in American worklife. In most cities, downtown office space on the ground level surrounded by glass is valuable retail space, and it isn’t often used for offices. But for the folks who do have desk jobs on the ground level facing the street, the big window can be fun as well as distracting.
Sparkling and modern, all-glass office buildings have been desired by businesses since German architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe imported the “International Style” of design to the U.S. shortly after World War II.
It is still all the rage in Europe, particularly in places such as sunlight-starved London, says architect Graham Davidson of Hartman-Cox, which designed the 27-year-old Euram Building.
“The idea is to bring the outside environment inside,” he says. If outside is as swinging as the hip and artsy Dupont Circle, it can lead to quite an interesting workday.
The fad cooled a bit in the 1970s when the energy crisis struck and dollar-conscious developers wanted other materials offering more efficient heating and cooling. Builders also became squeamish after the glass repeatedly popped out of the mammoth 60-story John Hancock building in Boston’s prestigious Back Bay, causing havoc on the streets below.
For workers, the transparent locations are a mixed bag. Experts say distractions brought by the windows can be helpful, particularly for people who do mundane or repetitive tasks. And humans have a remarkable ability to adapt to unique working conditions, according to Eric Sundstrom, a University of Tennessee psychology professor in Knoxville.
But he says “it is possible that people are adapting to that environment at some psychological cost.”
He cited studies showing that loud distractions can cause lapses in attention, work-related goof-ups, and even crankiness.
Many employees say sunlight is a boon to their disposition–and to office plants. But they concede that the wealth of solar energy can cause problems.
The attorneys and architects at the Euram Building often draw their blinds to fight the sun’s glare. Since the architects’ side of the building faces east, the sunrise brings toasty mornings, while sunset delivers chilly evenings.
“You can only control so much” with the air conditioning, said Tina Weich, a senior architect there.
Banks and some investment companies prize ground-level glassed-in offices for a more personable atmosphere.
“The trend is rather than hiding the internal workings, they are trying to bring them forward to serve the public more easily,” says Jean Wineman, a Georgia Institute of Technology architecture professor. Wineman says it encourages openness and makes workers more accessible to the public.
At a Crestar Bank branch in Washington, assistant manager Darryl Coleman insists that customers feel at ease with the affable atmosphere. He sits at a neat oak desk just a few feet from a busy sidewalk.
At times, though, he concedes the view distracts him. President Clinton and visiting diplomats zip by in motorcades. Once, police whisked away a robber in handcuffs, who had tried to stick up a nearby institution.
But Coleman feels protected behind his glass wall, figuring that a bank robber won’t target a place where so many eyewitnesses are on the other side of the window.
“People can see in, and we can see out,” Coleman says.
The street location brings high visibility that is great for business, says Brendan Hughes, a financial adviser with Fidelity Investments in Washington.
“It goes a long way for getting name recognition,” he adds. He says walk-in clients tend to gravitate toward prominent signs and workers they can see from the street.
