Time to relocate
Adam and I have been looking for some new office space recently to facilitate the expansions we're going through with the company. Today we verbally (and over e-mail, but not via contract) agreed to lease a ground-level office at 1010 Wellington Street in West Perth. If everything goes to plan we'll be moving in during the last week of October and it'll be our place of business come November 1.
Our current space is 22m² and we have two desks, a sofa and whiteboard which take up most of the space. We could ditch the sofa and have another desk but we don't want to be working in a cramped environment. It's not the right environment for our company to grow in.
The new space is 49m² (about two and half times bigger) and we'd be having three or four people working out of it. One entire wall is glass and has lots of natural light, which is important if you're looking at a computer screen all day. It faces Wellington Street but is sunken down from street level and is surprisingly quiet. The room is pretty well square, and has a sink and cupboard in the back right corner, as you look in the windows. We'll section that off with a partition of some sort no doubt.
I've re-read some office-design articles that are specific to programmers and IT people. We're starting with a blank slate here and have the opportunity to build a kick-ass office environment from the beginning that will foster the kind of growth we're hoping for.
The only problem is we're still stuck with the one car bay, but that's not a big problem. We also have access to the BBQ on the roof, so come Summer it'll be BBQ lunches every day.
Lastly, the office is next door to Cre8tif, a print and web design group that we've been working with since before our company's inception. Being close to them, phyisically, will no doubt have an influence on work life. Maybe we'll even share BBQs :)
Personally, I'm really excited about the opportunities that will be available to us now. I think that part of the reason the TFG has been two people for so long is the size of our office. We've begun the proceedings that will let us have full time staff on board and are moving in that direction. I saw first hand how important a wicked office is when I was lucky enough to visit Google. We'll have bean bags for sure!
excellent, somewhere i can hang out and procrastinate :-)
Exciting times. Good on yas, you should be pretty fucken proud of yourselves, I hope you are! :)
You know our Osborne Park building is (3/4) empty.
We currently lease the front reception and a few front offices to Scott Park’s new business. The rest of the building is empty and probably available for lease???
Our Osborne Park building is where our main data centre is, you might even be able to co-locate some hardware ;)
Keep in mind I’m not 100% sure if we are going to lease out the rest of the building but it wouldn’t hurt to ask if you’re interested…
We don’t want to have to drive up and down the freeway in peak traffic, and Osborne Park is a pretty shit place to work I think.
I like West Perth :)
Osborne Park is more of an industrial/commerce area that lots of car businesses, computer warehouses and general commercial buildings which is more along the retail side along with Ikea and Freedom etc and those dodgy side strip deli’s.
West Perth has most of the larger client base are in this area and around Perth City itself e.g mining industries, corporate businesses etc. which is a better area to promote and meet clients really in the heart of the city.
Having walked around where our office is (on one of those FAF times that somehow appears on a clients bill unknowingly if they are a nuisance) its close to the City / Harbor Town and more than a dozen Cafe’s / Coffee places.
Tia Kratter, one of the art dept directors of PIxar, came and gave my class a lecture at my film school when she was down here doing public lectures. Half of it was all about how cool a place it is to work and how that seems to be part of their success - how better to ensure you hang on to the best people in the business than by offering a kick-ass space for them to spend their day (and evenings if need be)…
Interesting you mention that Dea, as I heard a similar thing today from one of our contractors, Ian Hooper. I was talking about how ace Google was to visit, and he had some similar things to say about Pixar. Lots of toys.
Just make sure you dont put too many toys in there else it looks like a child care centre.
The guys at Pixar deal with making movies for kids and kidults who love those movies so its only natural they display the stuff they produce.
I have a LEGO city packed away from several years back with a monorail so you could set that up in there if you want.. maybe we could set it up to run from our office to yours and ship across cups of coffee or dirty socks.
Oh shit, I’m surrounded by lego hoarding motherfuckers.