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Secret office rooms help a company generate "buzz" about their workplaces, which helps with staff recruitment and retention, and might also be part of the pushback against open plans

Need space at work? Just say 'Open Sesame'

Inside a secret library room, with bookshelves modeled on those found in libraries in the 1940s, at Shutterstock in New York, Aug. 9, 2019. Secret rooms are popping up in workplacesImage: Jeenah Moon/The New York TimesTransparency is one of the biggest trends in modern office design:  open floor plans, fewer offices, glass walls and doors. And at a time  when #MeToo has called attention to the sordid things that can happen  behind closed doors, there may be some comfort in having everything, and  everyone, within view.But a taste for hidden places still runs deep.They have appeared throughout history, from secret passageways in  medieval castles to Prohibition-era speak-easies. Secret rooms are now  popping up in workplaces and other commercial settings, providing the  thrill of seeing a room materialize unexpectedly, not to mention the  appeal of hanging out in a space reserved for VIPs.“They add a moment of discovery in a workplace — a surprise for  employees and visitors,” said Samantha McCormack, a creative director at  TPG Architecture, which has tucked secret rooms into clients’ offices.  “There’s a coolness and playfulness factor.”Bookcases can swing wide in an open-sesame trick. At the Los Angeles  office of marketing company Weber Shandwick, TPG designed a wall-to-wall  bookcase with a section that can be pushed in, providing access to a  steampunk-style room devoted to quiet work. At Maison de la Luz, a  boutique hotel in New Orleans, guests enter a private salon through a  bookcase. Google has a private reading area hidden behind a bookcase at  its East Coast headquarters in New York.Secret rooms help a company generate “buzz” about their workplaces,  which helps with staff recruitment and retention, said David Ballard,  director of the American Psychological Association’s office of applied  psychologyThey might also be part of the pushback against open plans. “Some of  it is a legitimate need in a workplace for particular types of  environments that allow people to get away, out of the fray,” Ballard  said.Macmillan Publishers: A Green Room for Guest SpeakersWhen Macmillan Publishers was working with TPG Architecture to lay  out its new offices in the Equitable Building in lower Manhattan, the  publisher envisioned inviting visiting authors to give talks in its  spacious 25th-floor cafe. So a 240-square-foot room next to the cafe,  initially intended for storage, was designated instead as a green room,  where speakers can “hang out” before an appearance, said Andrew Weber,  the company’s chief operating officer for global trade publishing.It was TPG’s idea to add a little mystery by disguising the entry  with a bookcase that resembles the shelving that lines the office’s  hallways. “It’s an ‘aha’ moment,” Weber said.The room is furnished with comfortable upholstered seating. Editors  often use the space for meetings or for congratulatory receptions for  authors on the publication of their book.Shutterstock: A Quiet Library for Alone TimeShutterstock’s headquarters, in the Empire State Building in midtown  Manhattan, were designed by Studios Architecture. As in the open-plan  offices of many companies, there are specialized rooms for a wide range  of activities, like table tennis, yoga and lactation.So it’s not surprising that the company would also have a secret  library, which is reached through an inconspicuous door on a wall  covered with custom-printed vinyl depicting book-filled shelves.The space inside, lined with real bookshelves modeled on those found  in libraries in the 1940s, “was purposefully created to be a secret  place that people could go to for alone time but also to relax,” said  Lisa Nadler, Shutterstock’s chief human resources officer. “You almost  feel like you’re back in time to what the Empire State Building was like  in the old times.”Although everyone on staff knows about the room, it’s not as heavily  used as one might think, Nadler said. Still, the company has no plans to  tinker with the room.“It may not be the most efficient use of space,” she said, “but it makes this place unique.”Kang Modern: The Marbled Office of F.W. WoolworthThe office that once belonged to F.W. Woolworth, founder of the  five-and-dime empire, was certainly lavish. The 1,600-square-foot space  on the 24th floor of the Woolworth Building, built in lower Manhattan in  1913, had an elaborate coffered ceiling and marble walls its occupant,  who is said to have worshipped Napoleon, had gilded chairs modeled on  the French emperor’s throne and even hung a large portrait of his hero.But over the years, its grandeur faded, and the room became subsumed  into a 4,600-square-foot office. By the time architect Kang Chang,  principal of Kang Modern, checked out the space for an office for his  firm, the room’s coffered ceiling was gone, the plaster was crumbling,  and doorknobs were missing.But Chang relished the opportunity to have “something no one else  has.” Working with a contractor hired by Witkoff, the building’s owner,  he and his colleagues had the room restored. Carpet that had been glued  onto the original marble floor was scraped off, and long-shuttered doors  were unsealed, revealing Woolworth’s old safe, plus the missing  doorknobs with their W motif.To make the oversize room functional, Chang designed a free-standing  partition that divides the space into two without infringing on the  historic envelope. One side has a large conference table and chairs for  meetings the other, featuring Woolworth’s marble fireplace, is a  waiting area for visiting clients.Deutsch: A Place to Celebrate the Big WinThe large, light-filled conference room in the Los Angeles production  facility of advertising agency Deutsch, across the street from its  offices, has a back wall covered with gray felt. On it, team members can  pin up creative work during presentations for clients.If the team gets the go-ahead for an ad campaign, the agency has a  special way to celebrate. A member of the team that clinched the deal  inserts a key into a lock in a section of the felt-covered wall, and a  hidden door opens to a dimly lit room with a low ceiling. Designed by  HLW International, which equipped the entire production facility, the  speak-easy-style room has a stocked bar and a vintage neon sign salvaged  from a local bar that went out of business.“We use it for big wins, big moments with our clients,” said Kim  Getty, president of the Los Angeles office, adding that in some cases  the team that landed the deal gets to play bartender. “It’s fun to  invite them in and raise a toast.”

Need space at work? Just say 'Open Sesame'

Secret office rooms help a company generate "buzz" about their workplaces, which helps with staff recruitment and retention, and might also be part of the pushback against open plans

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