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THE BUSINESS JOURNAL OF THE BOULDER VALLEY AND NORTHERN COLORADO VOLUME 39 | ISSUE 8 | JULY 2020 THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME OFFICE

Residential renovation declines while home office remodels increase, according to Rodwin Architecture. PAGE 12

EXECUTIVE PROFILE INSPIRE BANKING & FINANCE LEGAL Yang converts New chamber Bank of America Law school grads love of STEM leader refocuses has big plans face hurdles to lead AE team during COVID crisis for Colorado to get on the job Innovative atmosphere Henning had advantage Bank targets 14 Bar exam could like working in a startup of looking with fresh markets, including be postponed; firms environment. PAGE 3 eyes at everything. PAGE 6 several in region. PAGE 10 wary about hiring. PAGE 18

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EXECUTIVELIFE

COURTESY RODWIN ARCHITECTURE This home office was converted from a dark and unused loft. Walls were replaced with glass and it was given access to its own private deck. It’s only 90 square feet but has professional lighting and acoustic privacy. Be it fancy or humble, there’s no place like home office

By Dallas Heltzell [email protected]

It used to be a storage room, an attic, the spare bedroom in the base- ment, or even a backyard shed. In more upscale homes, it used to be a parlor or a drawing room. Now it’s an office. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, more professionals are finding that home is where the work is. And because so many realize that tele- commuting will be the new normal, they want that workspace to be a lot more functional than a laptop on the kitchen table. Home renovation had tailed off dramatically during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, said Scott Rodwin of Boulder-based Rodwin Architecture, but his business spiked in May. “Because they’re spending more time at home and there’s more inten- sity in the home — more people doing more things — people are noticing the parts of the home that are not func- tioning really well for them. Home

DALLAS HELTZELL/FOR BIZWEST offices are the number-one thing peo- Many workers had to make do with whatever spaces were available when work shifted from the office to home. ple are noticing. “COVID has changed the nature of www.bizwest.com BizWest | July 2020 | 13

COURTESY ALIVESTUDIOS.COM This nook office is a space-efficient bump off of a family room. It features a custom walnut floating desk by Boulder Furniture Arts. As it’s in a fairly public space, the printer and other office supplies are tucked into a closet. what a home office is,” he said. “For of that, the front office, or the front “Some people say, ‘I in mind. many people, for a long time, a home position of the office positioned near “If you’ve been on a Zoom call office was nice to have. Now it has the front door, which was the old- want it (home office) in recently where somebody had bad become a must have.” fashioned formality of the drawing the middle of the house, lighting, it’s extremely unprofes- Businesses like the idea. Since room, has given way to people putting sional,” Rodwin said. “We’re noticing they’ve found that their workers can the office where they need it to be.” right off the kitchen, it more than we ever have because be just as productive from home, It doesn’t have to be up front, how- so that if the kids are we’re essentially making a movie of many won’t feel the need to lease ever, Rodwin said. running around I can still ourselves. And bad lighting” — a face large, expensive office spaces. And “How much privacy do you want? tinted blue-green from the computer workers like it too. Long before the Some people say, ‘I want it in the mid- be present.’” screen’s light on in silhouette from a pandemic, a “State of the American dle of the house, right off the kitchen, Scott Rodwin of Boulder-based bright window behind it, for instance Workplace” report issued by Gallup so that if the kids are running around I Rodwin Architecture — “really compromises the effective- in 2016 found that 43% of Americans can still be present. So they don’t fully ness. People are installing better, more worked remotely at least part of the detach from the activity of the house. even, balanced lighting.” time, up from 39% in 2012. “Then there are other people — and His customers also are asking for Much of that remote work was done this is the more common one – that lots of natural light, Rodwin said, in makeshift space. Rodwin said pro- want an ‘away’ space – maybe over High-tech considerations are at the “which usually means lighting from fessionals today want something more the garage or a fully separated little forefront, and none may be as impor- two sides of the room whenever pos- functional and permanent. shed in the backyard or something tant as cybersecurity, said Trent Hein, sible. Not always possible; you only “We realize that we don’t need a like that.” co-chief executive at Boulder-based have one wall to work with. That also large home office, but we generally do Mike Koenig’s 12-year-old, Louis- Rule4. typically gives us good natural ventila- need a dedicated space,” he said. “We ville-based Studio Shed has latched “We try to educate users on using tion where you can get a cross breeze. still have papers. We still need privacy, onto that latter idea and has seen a a secure file-sharing platform and on One of the advantages of working because on our Zoon calls we can’t surge in business from people who what data is sensitive and how it can from home is that many commercial have our kids playing Call of Duty in want not just artists’ retreats and “she be appropriately protected,” Hein said offices don’t have operable windows. the background. sheds” but full-fledged, free-standing during a June 4 BizWest webinar. “And The majority of offices are sealed. “So that means having a small room home offices out back. if they print a document that might When people are working from home, with a door and decent artificial light- “The reason they’re asking for have personal information on it, or almost all windows in the house are ing — a small, dedicated area so we’re an away space is that they’re used might have sensitive business infor- operable. So it’s creating a different not overrunning the public areas and to having the privacy of the regular mation on it, what do you do with that dynamic where you have access to the trying to turn them into something office where they can go and focus printout? Do you leave it on the printer outside.” they’re not, which is a private office.” and be separated from the kids run- for your 13-year-old to grab it and say, Many customers also are buying In new construction, Rodwin said, ning around or just general domestic “Hey, Mom or Dad, what’s this?” Or do their own sit-stand desks,” he said. “It “we typically try to put the home office life,” Rodwin said. “The majority of our we grab that quickly, do we use it, and doesn’t take up any more space than near the front door. The purpose of clients are finding that if their office is then do we have some type of shredder a normal desk; they’re simply replac- that is if you’re seeing people from not private, if it’s centered in the mid- or other destruction device we can use ing an old-fashioned standard sitting the outside coming in, which is not dle of the house and if it doesn’t have at home to get rid of that paper when desk with a sit-stand desk – largely all that common but it’s still useful a closable door, they’re not getting we no longer need it?” because more people are used to it in to have a study near the front of the their work done properly. There isn’t Rodwin’s firm has been equip- their office.” house, in what we would consider the the necessary social demarcation for ping home offices with Cat5 or Cat6 And because many homes include public area. their family to know, ‘Oh, mommy’s cabling that can handle high-band- more than one worker who needs pri- “It’s not just about having a pretty working now.’ It’s really helpful if their width connections, stuffing the walls vacy, he said, “in many homes, hav- space, decorative or ornamental any intention is to use it as an alternative to with acoustic insulation and install- ing two dedicated work spaces will more. It’s truly for function. Because a commercial office.” ing lighting with a television studio become the norm.”