• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 19, 2015

Sort of like food brands still pimping low fat/no fat products when studies clearly indicate the human body needs fat, the office management world is still pimping open office space when many studies have shown it's a less productive solution than more traditional office space.

That's not stopping the latest trend in office space, the Superwide. Superwide office space is large, one floor office space consisting of 100,000 square feet or more. Of the trend, Brookfield Property Partners Senior VP Duncan McCuaig said: “Large floors are absolutely in demand.” And “right now there is very little of this product in the city,” he added, referring to Manhattan.

Adam Kansler, managing director at financial data company Markit, loves the open office concept and says: “There’s something that gets lost” when a company is on multiple floors. You don’t get the same random moments of seeing someone from across the way, hearing that they’re working on a project, and saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to stop by.’ ”

Which, for some, is exactly the problem with the open office concept; constant interruptions and annoyances from co-workers who never shut up and have nothing better to do than run a constant stream of verbal diarrhea while you're trying to complete a project. 

But that won't stop ad agencies from continuing to pile on this trend .