River Views Beckon, When Office Workers Return

An elevator ride from the lobby to third floor of ALCO Management’s newly redesigned headquarters in One Union Place is like going forward in time 35 years.The first floor lobby is surrounded by office partitions that could double as the set of a vintage detective thriller. It’s dark and devoid of visual connection to the building’s historic and natural surroundings.But on the third floor awaits an airy, spacious office setting filled with natural light and open to views of the riverfront and Downtown Memphis’s historic Cotton Row neighborhood.

ALCO managers believe their office expansion has democratized the workplace by taking away executives’ corner offices and giving expansive views to pretty much everyone else. Unfortunately, only a smattering of ALCO’s 45 Memphis office employees are able to enjoy those views these days because most are virtually commuting in the age of COVID-19. ALCO’s renovation of the four-story building’s second and third floors was winding up in March when the company, a regional provider of subsidized housing, sent its employees home to be safe from COVID.Although the offices weren’t designed with social distancing in mind, the revamp allocated more space to employee workstations and less to executives’ private offices, with the balance going to collaborative and gathering spaces and amenities.

Just Add People

Burbank and the founder’s daughter, Sarah Jemison, said company officials scrutinized the redesign in light of COVID-19 and concluded it could accommodate the workforce safely when everyone returns to the office.The office footprint was expanded to support up to 60 employees, in hopes of preparing for growth over the next 20 years in a 45-person headquarters staff.

We did a survey when we started the process of renovating our office, asking the team, ‘What do you want, what do you not want?’ and there was very strong desire not to have a totally open workspace, and so we followed that, which was very convenient,” Sarah Jemison said.

Burbank said, “Our workstations got a little bit larger. We were trying to say ‘What’s that middle of the road?’ Not everybody can have a private office, but not everybody wants to be crammed in six people to a table.”

“The natural space where people sit at in their work stations is more than 6 feet apart and just the nature of it was we were thinking ahead to a 20-year horizon, so we have extra desks, extra offices,” Burbank said.

A Bowflex and other exercise equipment for a workout room are still in the building basement, because there’s no way to put enough distance between two people working out at the same time. A touch-screen fob was added to the hallway door.“We have pretty large common spaces and a lot of collaboration areas where two people can go and have a lot of space,” Burbank said. “We added a balcony on the front, so that’s a pretty exciting amenity.”

The renovation included two art installations by Memphis artists.A blue stairwell installation called “The Making of a Home” consists of a wall filled with discarded tools. It was a collaboration between Parker Design Studio, the design team leader, and art consultant Anna Wunderlich. An installation of keys on the second floor, called “Making Waves,” was created by Sarah Crawford.

Glasco said she’s enjoying the balcony and her standing desk, a new feature at every workstation.
“I don’t think I’ve sat in my desk chair since I came back. I really like it,” Glasco said.