New Office Fog Creek
Remember the bionic office ? Fog Creek moved there in 2003. After a couple of years, we outgrew it, and therefore expanded and occupied the whole floor. By the time the lease expired in 2008, there were 25 people working in the office intended for 18 people, and we understood that we needed to move. In addition, dirty Midtown, excellent for startups, five years later began to annoy. Now we had a little more money, but because we started looking for a place with an area twice as large for a price that is four times higher than the old one.
It is worth mentioning again that our goal at Fog Creek is to create the very best workplace for developers. Finding a great place was not easy. Our ideal - to provide each developer with a personal account - is unusual, and therefore it is almost impossible to find a ready-made office built on this principle. It turned out that we had no choice but to design our own interior.
We knew it would take some time. After our first office, I realized that from the time of the search to the move about ten months passed. I also knew that if I wasn’t fully involved in every detail of the construction, we’ll get exactly that dreary office with partitions sucking in life’s juice, which became popular thanks to the utopian workplace in Office Space.
')
After a tiring search, we signed a tenancy agreement for 10,600 square feet on the last floor of 55 Broadway, almost in the center, with a fantastic view of the Hudson, the Statue of Liberty and Jersey.
We found a homeowner with his own construction team who offered to create an interior for us for free. The only problem was that his idea of ​​a good office was much closer to Initech from “Office Space” than to FogCreek. And therefore we had to invest about half a million dollars to finish literally everything.
Creating a cool office space for developers serves two purposes: increased productivity and an increased pool of candidates. Personal cabinets with lockable doors protecting programmers from interference and allowing them to focus on the code, rather than on the interesting dialogs taking place in the room. The point is worth it, especially in a world where so many software companies offer only the most primitive and dreary offices with partitions. Here are some of the distinctive features of the new office:
A lot of well-lit rooms located around the perimeter of the building. Each developer, tester and project manager has a personal account. All cabinets with the exception of two have windows to the street (the remaining two receive plenty of daylight through two glass walls)
Tables designed for programming . Long and straight tables are equipped with motorized lifts for maximum ergonomics and comfort, and therefore part of the day you can, if you wish, work while standing. Standard 30-inch monitors. Tables are straight, not L-shaped, which makes pair programming and code review more convenient. Each table has 20 electrical outlets, and most developers also have a small hub for connecting additional computers. Our standard chair is Herman Miller Aeron. Guest chairs - the famous Series 7 Arne Jacobsen. Bedside tables are equipped with wheels, a soft top and are designed for extra guest seats.
Glass blackboards . Easily erased, look great, not deformed.
Coffee bar and dining room. In the presence of a coffee machine, a large refrigerator, full of drinks, an inexhaustible stock of snacks and a delicious lunch, which the catering company brings daily. We have lunch together and this is one of the distinctive moments of working with us. A huge salt water aquarium brings light and color to the center of the office.
Plenty of meeting space. In the dining room there is a projector and a motorized screen (used mainly to play Rock Band, thank you, Jeff Atwood); there are also several meeting tables, two conference rooms and a large S-shaped sofa.
A library full of antediluvian paper books, as well as two reclining chairs that are great for afternoon nap.
There is a shower (marble from top to bottom), so you can get to work or move around during the day by bike.
Wooden floors around the perimeter - you can ride a scooter. Carpets in offices to give silence. Concrete in the dining room - it looks bright and cool.
You cannot insert enough pictures into the article to give you the opportunity to feel the atmosphere, but I posted a lot of photos of our new office on Picasa. If you are interested in learning more about the reasons why we spend such a lot of money on creating an excellent workspace, read the article “Practical Guide for Developers”.
- From the translator:
For ease of editing, I posted an article on the wiki-translation server site joelonsoftware.com . You can correct all translation inaccuracies right there.
Author: Joel Spolsky.
Translator: Denis Baluev .
The original article was called The new Fog Creek office and was written on December 29, 2008.
PS Transfer, plz to the blog "Project Office". As far as I understand, the place is there for him.
It is worth mentioning again that our goal at Fog Creek is to create the very best workplace for developers. Finding a great place was not easy. Our ideal - to provide each developer with a personal account - is unusual, and therefore it is almost impossible to find a ready-made office built on this principle. It turned out that we had no choice but to design our own interior.
We knew it would take some time. After our first office, I realized that from the time of the search to the move about ten months passed. I also knew that if I wasn’t fully involved in every detail of the construction, we’ll get exactly that dreary office with partitions sucking in life’s juice, which became popular thanks to the utopian workplace in Office Space.
')
After a tiring search, we signed a tenancy agreement for 10,600 square feet on the last floor of 55 Broadway, almost in the center, with a fantastic view of the Hudson, the Statue of Liberty and Jersey.
We found a homeowner with his own construction team who offered to create an interior for us for free. The only problem was that his idea of ​​a good office was much closer to Initech from “Office Space” than to FogCreek. And therefore we had to invest about half a million dollars to finish literally everything.
Creating a cool office space for developers serves two purposes: increased productivity and an increased pool of candidates. Personal cabinets with lockable doors protecting programmers from interference and allowing them to focus on the code, rather than on the interesting dialogs taking place in the room. The point is worth it, especially in a world where so many software companies offer only the most primitive and dreary offices with partitions. Here are some of the distinctive features of the new office:
A lot of well-lit rooms located around the perimeter of the building. Each developer, tester and project manager has a personal account. All cabinets with the exception of two have windows to the street (the remaining two receive plenty of daylight through two glass walls)
Tables designed for programming . Long and straight tables are equipped with motorized lifts for maximum ergonomics and comfort, and therefore part of the day you can, if you wish, work while standing. Standard 30-inch monitors. Tables are straight, not L-shaped, which makes pair programming and code review more convenient. Each table has 20 electrical outlets, and most developers also have a small hub for connecting additional computers. Our standard chair is Herman Miller Aeron. Guest chairs - the famous Series 7 Arne Jacobsen. Bedside tables are equipped with wheels, a soft top and are designed for extra guest seats.
Glass blackboards . Easily erased, look great, not deformed.
Coffee bar and dining room. In the presence of a coffee machine, a large refrigerator, full of drinks, an inexhaustible stock of snacks and a delicious lunch, which the catering company brings daily. We have lunch together and this is one of the distinctive moments of working with us. A huge salt water aquarium brings light and color to the center of the office.
Plenty of meeting space. In the dining room there is a projector and a motorized screen (used mainly to play Rock Band, thank you, Jeff Atwood); there are also several meeting tables, two conference rooms and a large S-shaped sofa.
A library full of antediluvian paper books, as well as two reclining chairs that are great for afternoon nap.
There is a shower (marble from top to bottom), so you can get to work or move around during the day by bike.
Wooden floors around the perimeter - you can ride a scooter. Carpets in offices to give silence. Concrete in the dining room - it looks bright and cool.
You cannot insert enough pictures into the article to give you the opportunity to feel the atmosphere, but I posted a lot of photos of our new office on Picasa. If you are interested in learning more about the reasons why we spend such a lot of money on creating an excellent workspace, read the article “Practical Guide for Developers”.
- From the translator:
For ease of editing, I posted an article on the wiki-translation server site joelonsoftware.com . You can correct all translation inaccuracies right there.
Author: Joel Spolsky.
Translator: Denis Baluev .
The original article was called The new Fog Creek office and was written on December 29, 2008.
PS Transfer, plz to the blog "Project Office". As far as I understand, the place is there for him.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/55388/
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