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Office Environments, Layouts, Standards and Guidelines

As a contractor or architect, it’s up to you to design a space for your clients that is well suited to the client’s needs and improves the quality of their experience existing in the space. Getting contracted to design office spaces is not always easy, especially today with a rapidly evolving definition of what an office environment could be. Nowadays, most new offices are multidimensional and act as a home away from home- with kitchens, games, and lounge areas that simulate the essence of a living room.

These workspaces are meant to cater to the worker’s needs, boost morale, enhance production, and increase continuity and communication amongst coworkers or “team members”. By designing a thoughtful and considered layout, and installing the right framework, you’ll be able to craft an innovative working environment that your client and their employees will love. Below, we’ve outlined some things to keep in mind during the design process. Much needed rooms, spatial separation, and exciting elements to employ may help inspire your blueprints.

Office Open Floor Plans

Today, open floor plans have become the new staple or standard in office design. More and more companies are recognizing that allowing their employees to freely communicate, work together and experience closeness actually increases productivity and team morale. Open floor plans also increase visibility, natural light, and breathability throughout the office environment. By starting off your design with an open plan, you make room for a lot of inventive spatial solutions and targeted rooms that will add intrigue and excitement to the space.

bright workplace with many glass divided rooms

Office Phone Booths/Call Rooms

A good way to allow for some spatial separation and privacy is to introduce phone booths or “tiny rooms” into the open swath of expansive office space. While these glass barriers are not specifically soundproof, they do provide a spatial barrier that lessens noise and provides increased privacy. This way, when a team member has a long call (or a loud voice) they can quickly step into these quiet spaces and not feel guilty about distracting nearby workers. A new poll by Udemy and Toluna showed that 80% of workers admit to being sonically distracted while at work.

 “Office noise is the second most cited workplace disturbance, with seven out of ten respondents citing noise as a top bother in their day-to-day workflow” (statista.com).

Outside influences on employees’ working environment take a toll on productivity and cause employees a cumbersome mental reset every few minutes. A great solution to introduce with these call booths is to install sliding door room dividers for the call booth so as to save space in an already tiny enclosure, while creating a stylish design that increases the office aesthetic. Our solutions divide the space, curtail foot traffic and provide visual privacy.

 

Bonus Yoga / Stretching / Meditation Room

A new trend amongst trendy office spaces is offering a yoga or meditation room. People become seriously fatigued while sitting for too long a time in uncomfortable office chairs day in and day out. Not only is a desk job physically grueling on a person’s body, but it also takes a mental toll. By designing workers space for some healthy breaks to stretch, breathe, recenter and improve their physical health, you effectively boost productivity, increase mental capacity and increase contentment amongst a workforce. Consider installing sliding glass barn doors for this room – it will enhance the overall look of the room and offer an artistic flourish your client will love. What’s more, you can choose from six different glass opacities to best suit your client’s needs. For the yoga room, perhaps a more opaque glass finish would be the ideal choice, so workers can stretch and meditate while enjoying a bit of privacy. 

conference room with sliding glass door wall, some panels opaque

Think Tank / Conference Room

While open floor plans are a great way to achieve integration, cohesion, and an overall team mentality, any office environment should come equipped with a full-size conference room for important/private meetings and presentations. Some like to think of these rooms as productive think tanks. Not providing one would be a big detriment to any business. People need to be able to gather around a table, bounce ideas off each other, check-in on progress, etc. To engineer a stylistic balance of privacy with visibility, use glass sliding door room dividers to integrate a conference room amongst the rest of the open floor plan. This way, you’ll provide a “separate yet together” feel that your clients will thoroughly enjoy.

Private Offices

Of course, you’ll want to design your office space with at least one to three private offices to provide distinction for the company CEO, manager or owner from the general workforce. By using floor-to-ceiling glass wall partitions and interior sliding doors, you’ll provide enough spatial separation and privacy while assimilating the rooms into the vast open space. An office with four solid walls on each side doesn’t exactly say “teamwork” the way it should. Rather, it segregates the people below and can make employees feel detached from their bosses or those higher up than them. As the designer, take it upon yourself to create a positive, integrative working environment that will improve the working conditions of employees and drive the business in the right direction.

Our glass and aluminum partitions are recyclable and perfect for green construction projects. They also assist architects with earning LEED points which is another selling point when contracting clients. Taking into consideration general layout, office partitions, the use of glass, and introducing inventive spaces, you’ll successfully craft a product that your clients will celebrate each day they come into work. An office should be a productive home away from home. Consult the experts in space optimization and check out Space Plus, a division of the Sliding Door Company.

Have a look at our products gallery for inspiration and product images. Schedule a call with one of our knowledgeable professionals to get a free quote and other information on our many available solutions. Simply find a location near you and ensure your office design a success!

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A New Kind of Necessity

Interior upgrades for your commercial space or retail business that add convenience and offer flexibility are an absolute must these days. If you own and operate any business that interacts with numerous customers per hour, you need to safeguard both your employees and your clients from spreading the Coronavirus by implementing methods for safe separation.

The key to success is finding a solution that is not only quick, affordable, and cost-effective to install, but one that also offers must-need flexibility during the workday. At Space Plus, a Division of The Sliding Door Company, we’re the experts at finding the right solutions for your business. Take our advice, and invest in the best. Here’s a list of some of our safety recommendations if you’re currently operating a business during these unprecedented times.

Be Prepared

To run and operate a safe and effective business or medical practice in the modern moment, you’ll need to arm your place of work with safety measures before anyone even enters the door. This looks like:

  • Hiring a door greeter that is capable of taking people’s temperature or issuing medical questionnaires to incomers.
  • Offering a hand sanitizing table, complete with wet wipes and sanitizer pumps.
  • Keeping the doors closed with a sign on the outside stating your requested protocol such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and store capacity number.
  • Having a time limit for appointments/shoppers to keep the flow of traffic steady and fair to all visiting.
  • Request that visitors to your business make an appointment online or through the phone prior to visiting.

Pass-through Windows

Pass through sliding panels allows you to open or close spaces between workers and visitors, such as a pharmacy counter, medical testing site, or food window! Reception windows are a perfect solution to healthcare waiting rooms, education, and any commercial space where people walk up to a counter. The best part? Your business can select from various glass types, frame finishes, locks, handles, and other accessories to find the ideal solution for your business needs.

Transition Your Business Online

Many businesses and even medical practices have made the transition to online, offering all the services they can on a virtual platform while COVID cases remain high and safety is a top concern. While not every need can be met through a screen, the majority of shopping, consultations, and medical questionnaires can be fulfilled using a computer. This helps reduce the number of people visiting the physical place of business and cuts back on the number of workers necessary.

With the integration of glass partitions and wall dividers, hospitals, health care facilities, pharmacies, and retail shops will be able to serve patients, clients, and customers in need.  Spatial separation is the most crucial element in this process to safeguard citizens against this deadly virus. Make your facility or place of business as safe as possible for everyone involved. Stop the spread of COVID-19 by integrating glass wall partitions and increasing physical separation between visitors and workers. Visit Space Plus, A Division of the Sliding Door Company online for your commercial needs including glass office dividers, privacy walls, and sliding room dividers. View our online catalog, Get a quote from one of our professionals today, and order the perfect pass-through glass windows you need to ensure safety for all online at SpacePlus.com.

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Testing Facilities Arm up with Spatial Dividers

As we head into our second large-scale shut-down this December, many people worry about their ability to safely visit health facilities. Without a doubt, there is an influx of people visiting health centers, testing facilities, and hospitals now compared with the rest of the year. Add the seasonal flu into the mix, and we arrive at an overtaxed healthcare system. And in addition to the normal seasonal illnesses, a lot of people are also deterred from visiting the centers because they either don’t want to spread their illness, or they don’t want to contract something during their visit to a health care center. This very reason is why hundreds of drive-through testing centers have popped up across the country.

As a testing facility, it’s time to invest in your patients,  and arm up with all the necessary safety precautions and physical barriers possible. So in order to keep visitors to your establishment safe and feeling confident in your facility, implement these tips and tactics into your testing facility to be the safest, most reliable testing center in your area.

Unsure where to start? Luckily, Space Plus, a division of The Sliding Door Company, has all the answers to your safety solutions this winter.

Covid Testing Centers

With hundreds of testing centers across the country, there are many unique differences to each facility depending on where you go. For instance, while some testing centers resemble a normal indoor clinic, others have converted entire parking lots or large swaths of open space into a drive-through testing facility. And while there is little difference in the accuracy of these centers, there could be a big difference in how safe they are. So if you’re running or helping to manage a COVID testing center, here are some helpful pointers for drive-in testing centers.

Drive-Through Testing

Many consider the drive-through COVID testing lots to be the safest means for obtaining Coronavirus test results. Why?

That’s simple. Here’s why:

  • The patient doesn’t have to get out of the car
  • The patient doesn’t touch any communal surfaces
  • Little to no interaction with nurses and clinic professionals
  • Drive through, take the test from your car and wait for the results

This version of a testing center is perfectly risk-free and safe for those getting tested! However, as an employee of a COVID testing center, it might feel far riskier. After all, employees and volunteers are the ones that are interacting with potentially sick people, and in many cases are handling test packets and samples.

So in order to keep your employees and hardworking volunteers safe, arm your drive-through center with the safest solutions around.

What are the best safety measures available?

Without question, anyone working at a testing center should be wearing a mask, a face-shield, or both. They should wear gloves that they change out regularly and a hospital gown if possible. Those are all the obvious safety precautions that you can ask your workers to take each day, but how can you ensure even more safety and physical barrier between patients and testing workers?

The best way is to create more physical safety by integrating standing Glass Wall Partitions between patients and workers. QubiGlass wall partitions from Space Plus are perfect for the job, for a number of reasons. They’re made from real glass, not porous acrylic like plexiglass. This means that these dividers won’t allow bacteria and germs to set in, and they can withstand years of heavy cleaning and disinfecting. They come in a wide range of varying sizes and configurations and are a total breeze to set up. Because they’re completely transparent dividers, your testing center staff can still interact with those getting tested all while remaining safe behind a solid barrier! The best part? QubiGlass wall dividers come in an array of varying configurations, sizes, and opacities so you can choose from hundreds of designs to find the perfect match for your COVID testing center! Have them installed within a day, and enjoy a safe testing center for the winter months to come!

For more ideas, inspiration, and related blogs, head over to Space Plus, a Division of The Sliding Door Company for all the best in commercial space-saving solutions! From Bi-Fold doors to swing doors, Wall Dividers to suspended systems, Space Plus has it all! Schedule a free consultation with one of our showroom professionals and order your very own custom QubiGlass Partitions today!

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New York Hospitals Face Extreme Conditions

It’s no surprise that the city of New York would be one of the most affected by this crisis, and would suffer the most severe damage from the general design of New York City and the sheer amount of citizens living in a 2.3-mile wide territory. The inevitability of this catastrophic disaster was so abstract that for many, our largest fears surrounding this situation in New York have now been realized. With the exhaustive conditions of overcrowded hospitals and a current death toll of around 2,000 people, New York is by far the most severely hit state by Coronavirus.

Offices

Because these hospitals are so overcrowded, reports and imagery of patient living conditions within the city hospitals are confounding. Images of patient-lined hallways and hospital beds scattered throughout empty floor space in medical centers have many of us wondering what solutions may exist. Unable to enjoy the comforts and privacy of a hospital room, most patients are currently placed wherever there is room available. With the number of cases rising every day, news of nurses and doctors coming to help from neighboring states gives some hope in these dire moments.

Creating a healthy hospitalized environment for patients, front-line care workers, families and communities has become our top priority at Space Plus. Within the context of the all-encompassing coronavirus outbreak, we’re now offering our Wellness Walls to accommodate the increased needs for time-sensitive medical facilities, with minimal disruption and no major construction.

office wall partitions

Our Wellness Walls are essentially glass wall partitions that hospitals can install and integrate into the hospital floor plan to create spatial separation and the confinement of patients being treated. These act as small-scale care rooms that can be deployed almost anywhere you have available space. Below is a comprehensive list of all of the potential uses and situations where our Wellness Walls could be deployed.

  • Situational waiting rooms
  • Infection control prevention
  • Mitigation Isolation System
  • Protection of Staff
  • Customizable and Convertable (can adjust depending on the number of sick vs. healthy patients)
  • Exam rooms
  • Triage rooms
  • Helps Increase Patient Flow and Available Rooms
  • Isolation rooms (positive and negative pressure)
  • Diagnostic labs
  • Easy to Clean
  • Doctors and Nurses can write on the glass walls (great for indicating arrival times and numbers, as well as labeling immediate attention patients, etc. Can be erased easily)
  • Administration spaces
  • Glass is Impermeable to Infectious Virus
  • Sliding pass-through window great for medications and paperwork
  • Perfect for testing and lab stations
  • Interior construction for temporary facilities
  • Can be installed in unused administration spaces that could be transitioned into overflow areas
  • Existing lower acuity units that could transition to high acuity units

sliding door in a medical office space

With the integration of glass partitions and wall dividers, hospitals may be able to stabilize and care for all of the incoming patients in need. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo approximates that we have not yet hit the “Apex” of this Virus and that by the end of April we will have reached the high point of the pandemic in New York, with a hopeful drop-off and decline to ensue thereafter. This indicates that the time for action is now and that we are currently in a race against the disease spreading further. Spatial separation is the most crucial element in this process to safeguard our citizens against this deadly virus.

Make your wellness facility as safe as possible for everyone involved. Stop the spread of COVID 19 within hospitals by integrating glass wall partitions and increased patient separation. Visit Space Plus, A Division of the Sliding Door Company online to view our online catalog, and Get a quote from one of our professionals today.

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Salon Partition Ideas

Boutique hair and beauty salons are popping up everywhere across the country and surprising us with their stylish lounges, evocative interior design, and amenities. This attention to the fine details has raised the bar for these businesses and drawn many new customers in, as enjoying a top-notch salon can be an unparalleled experience. Beauty gurus across the map are realizing just how in-demand luxurious salons have become. The customer will happily pay the extra cost of an aesthetically pleasing salon over an outdated, underwhelming one any day. Going to a salon is a self-indulgent gift, and as customers, they want to feel that they were carefully considered during the designing process.

Now, to the How.

If you are ready and able to begin your salon transformation (or design an entirely novel one) set aside some healthy time to visualize, design, plan and lastly, take action. Below are some of the most crucial considerations to think about during your design process.

Plenty of light

Above all else, your salon should proudly boast tons of natural light. This will not only help aid the hairstylist in color decisions and acute visibility during cuts but also create a warm and vibrant indoor environment for everyone to enjoy. A dark salon can appear smaller, more boxed in and uninviting. To achieve the most natural lighting, install floor to ceiling windows, especially on the street side of the parlor. This will also attract curious passers-by and give clients the opportunity to people-watch while waiting.

salon with office dividers

Consider using transparent office partitions to achieve spatial separation throughout the salon rather than minimizing the open space with light-blocking partitions. The space will breathe better and light will flow freely with this space optimizing solution.

Consistent design theme

A crucial aspect of great interior design is maintaining a consistent design theme throughout the hair salon. There are so many exciting themes to choose from- the trick is not mixing and matching them. If too many themes are employed, the design can appear muddied and confused. Some classic interior design schemes are:

  • Modern (contemporary),
  • Luxury
  • Vintage
  • Chic
  • Rustic
  • Earthy
  • Industrial

Once you pick your theme, aim to stay within the borders of that look to successfully evoke the emotional response and vibe you’re after.

Mirrors

Mirrors effectively expand space and reflect crucial light. By integrating mirrors throughout your salon, you’ll enlarge the interior space and provide more visibility for your customers. Everyone loves a good full-length mirror. Try installing full length sliding closet mirror doors to hide your unkempt closets and backrooms. This solution is an all-around win- these sliding mirror doors will conceal mess, reflect natural light, expand the space, and provide your clients with better visibility!

salon with sliding door entries

Lounge Area/ Comfortability

One of the areas many salon owners and designers fail to acknowledge is the lounge or waiting area. This is a crucial facet of any salon business, as you will inevitably experience an influx of clients in and out with overlapping appointments and customers waiting to be seen. Those who are awaiting their appointment may very likely be in a hurry, anxious with anticipation and overall, inpatient. It’s necessary that you provide them with a comfortable and inviting lounge area that will smooth their nerves, provide some healthy distraction and cause them to feel excited about their big makeover, not nervous. Your lounge should have all the essentials- comfy couches and chairs, a coffee table, magazines, perhaps a tea/coffee bar and a place to hang their coats and personal items. This first impression will make or break the client’s overall experience and perception of the business. Set yourself up for success and return clients by catering to their every need.

Amenities

Anytime a customer sets out to spend a healthy amount of money on beauty, they expect to be taken care of from the minute they walk through the door, to the second they exit the building. A comprehensive approach should be employed, and you as the owner need to ensure your salon exceeds their expectations. Your customers should be greeted with a warm welcome and a beverage- be it tea, coffee, sparkling, wine or water. Bonus points for offering snacks and up-to-date magazines for them to pore over. Your receptionist should check in with your clients regularly and ensure them that their wait time is limited. A sparkling clean bathroom is also a must. Some hair appointments can take up to 5 or 6 hours and your clients will need that convenience! For an extra artistic touch, install opaque glass barn doors as the bathroom door. Interior sliding doors will save your salon space and offer a design flourish they weren’t expecting.

Again, it’s all about the fine details. These little facets to your overall design will be subliminal yet effecting and will leave your clients impressed and eager to return month after month. Word of mouth is a huge marketing platform for any salon- make it easy for your clients to refer you to their friends and family by carefully considering these tips and tricks.

To get started on your salon transformation, check out our products gallery for inspiration and product images. Schedule a call with one of our knowledgeable professionals to get a quote and other information on our many available solutions. Simply find a location near you and get that much closer to optimizing your beauty business for success!