Temporary workspace in Seattle offers relief from an unsightly drive to Redmond. Reserve a room, shorten your commute, and protect your sanity. By Steve Birge May possibly 2, 2008 Crossing the dreaded Lake Washington bridges to obtain to operate in Redmond is really a good deal less agonizing for those who remain in Seattle. For countless Seattle residents,
Office Home And Business 2010 Key, the new Worklink Touchdown area in the Westlake/Terry building in downtown Seattle is a welcome relief. The new space opened April 14. It provides loads of airy temporary desk room, meeting rooms and collaboration regions, and enclosed phone/Live Meeting rooms. It’s located just downstairs from existing Microsoft offices in Seattle. About 150 spaces are available for FTEs to reserve for up to five consecutive work days. The bright, collegial space is not meant to replace assigned offices, but rather to offer a workplace for the convenience of employees in Seattle, said Cindy Quitasol, development manager for Americas Real Estate. “In case you have a meeting downtown and you reside on this side [of the lake], or if you’re from another location and have a meeting in Seattle, you can stop here and get some operate done,” she said. “Or maybe you have a doctor or other type of appointment in Seattle—instead of driving back across the lake, you can come here,
Discount Office 2007, perform, and go home. It takes out a whole lot of commute time.” The Seattle Touchdown room is another program inside the Worklink initiative, which, among other things,
Office 2007 Professional Key, also operates the Microsoft Connector bus service. Users have access to day-use lockers, copiers and faxes, and a big kitchen/common area. The desks, each with wired and Wi-Fi access to Corpnet, have some partitioning so that occupants can focus, but the overall layout is open. Michael Grochau, a group program manager inside the AdCenter group, was enthusiastic about the room but suggested minor adjustments. “From an ergonomic perspective, it would be excellent if there was a monitor, keyboard, and mouse set up,” he said. “But I’m saving money on gas, I’m able to walk to the gym, the lockers are outstanding, and being downtown is superb. It’s about organizing work time as well. You have to have face time with your team and managers,
Microsoft Office Standard 2007, so it’s making me be more structured with my time.” There are meeting rooms, but furniture in a lot of locations allow for team discussions in a more comfortable setting akin to a lounge. There are also various “mobile phone rooms,” with doors that enable mobile phone or Reside Meeting discussions without bothering other users. The ability to have remote meetings is important to Nir Froimovici, a lead program manager with AdCenter. “I had a challenge working here [at Touchdown], being a manager and making sure I had enough face time with my team,” he said. “But we worked it out with the virtual technology we have. I provided a Webcam to everybody on my team, so we had what we required to have our weekly meeting.” Quitasol said the Touchdown area is getting decent traffic but expects use to build as the word gets out. It is actually a pilot facility, said Kristine Lea,
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, senior manager in North America Facilities and Services. She said Microsoft is looking at other opportunities for expansion of the concept but wants to wait to see how the new Seattle space is used before moving ahead. Quitasol said there are not specific expectations about how effectively used it will be, but response to date has been positive. “We’re sensing a great deal of people are truly excited about it,” she said. “We’ve seen a great deal of interest in e-mails from people who live here and people who’ve used the room seem to be very pleased.”