I raved about my office space in my last blog. Yes, I was in bliss, nestled among the printers and prints, the boxes and bits, and, of course, the files. I embraced the windowless “catch-all” room that contained all the production materials plus the jumble nobody wanted in their offices, but nobody felt like tossing.
Little did I know there was something better out there. Something in the form of… this:
"The Pit" -photo by Scott Porter
GCG-ers now have it all in our new office on West 7th Street, from our lovely kitchen, to our office kegerator, to our comfy chairs. Our office is the entire floor of the building and we’re surrounded by all the cool places to eat lunch. We have a war room for little meetings and a conference room for big meetings. We have working air conditioning. In fact, it works so well that most of us (well, the girls) have fuzzy blankets at our desks.
Now you may be thinking, “Yes, well, this office cannot be the office of all offices because everyone does not have an OFFICE.”
I admit that many of us were skeptical at first about giving up our own rooms. But this half walled-cubicle set-up has boosted synergy and communication. Plus, each space comes with this:
"Guest Accommodations" -photo by Scott Porter
A friendly cushion for placing one’s haunches when you’re talking to your office mate. How nice.
Of course, as the lowly intern, I have been at GCG for the second-least amount of time. The impressiveness of this office likely doesn’t mean nearly as much to me as it does to a few other employees around here.
“When I first started at GCG on the West Freeway, I had no window.
When we moved 20 years ago to Summit Ave., I got a window. A really big window with a view of the West Freeway.
In my new office on West 7th, I not only have a window, I also have a glass wall at the front of my office with a view of the beautiful open area where amazing people fuel the creative engine that is GCG.
In some ways, it’s still like the freeway. The GCG folks I see every day know where they are going, and they exceed the speed limit fairly frequently. If traffic is backed up, they know how to go around. If they get into trouble, somebody quickly shows up to help. And fortunately, they don’t collide with each other nearly as often.
It’s a great view.”
-Becky Johnson
Medical Education Director
GCG Healthcare
GCG-er for 25 years
“The other day I drove down Greenleaf, the little street where my first GCG office was located and where I began working right out of school. On that day, I saw that the old building had been completely demolished, and the wave of nostalgia I felt made me sad. You see, I like to hold onto things. (I still have my first office calculator and the old typewriter I used before we got computers.)
I absolutely love everything about our new office on West 7th St., which happens to be only a few blocks from Greenleaf. We haven’t come far in distance, but in so many other ways we are light years down the road from where we started.”
-Dede Echols
Accounting Director
GCG-er for 27 years
“I’ve been here long enough to see three new offices and this one is by far the best. One of the best things about our new office is that it looks like a creative office and feels like a creative office. Visually, it’s much more powerful and it creates a lot of positive energy, which is also reflected in our team. When I first walked into our new space, I felt like it was in a thriving design district in L.A. or Miami.”
-Brian Wilburn
Senior Art Director
GCG-er for 24 years
So we’re kicking off a new year in new digs, and we’re extremely happy with our new space. From our desks with a view of Montgomery Plaza, we’ll continue to produce fantastic work in a little more inspirational environment.
