Must be good for bonuses and vanity at the C suite.
https://www.commercialsearch.com/news/ibm-opens-manhattan-flagship-office/ https://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2024/09/06/ibm-unveils-flagship-nyc-office.html
10 replies (most recent on top)
I can provide IBM how many hours a day a spend watching TV while 'working' at home and doing nothing... though there is not a lot of variation in the data, so that may not be useful! Interested IBM?
The company analyzes the swings of each ping-pong player
... and reports how many minutes each player spends playing to management
"Relatively safe city" 😅😅
[Complete Bizjournal article referenced by OP quoted below].
IBM opens the doors to its flagship New York City office --
By: Kevin Smith – Staff Reporter, New York Business Journal
Sep 6, 2024 | Updated Sep 6, 2024 3:34pm EDT
Hundreds of people, including U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, gathered inside IBM's new flagship New York City office as the tech giant made its debut in Manhattan's Flatiron District on Friday.
IBM signed a 16-year lease two years ago to become the anchor tenant of One Madison Ave., consolidating its nine other offices around the city, including locations in East Village and Midtown, across 270,000 square feet at the new location.
The company's headquarters remain based in Armonk, New York.
The Flatiron office can house more than 2,000 IBM employees. The new space includes IBM's Innovation Studio, which is based on the second floor and aims to immerse visitors in the company's history and ongoing projects.
For example, IBM's ping-pong table inside the Innovation Studio isn't just for games: The company analyzes the swings of each ping-pong player and how the ball moves each play.
"It's similar to the work we've done for the U.S. Open," an IBM employee said. IBM has served as the U.S. Open's digital innovation partner for more than 30 years.
IBM's second floor also contains the Blue Bar, which will offer both coffee and alcoholic drinks — the latter only available after work hours. The office also has a cafeteria, 300-person auditorium and a 25,000-square-foot rooftop terrace that has panoramic views of the city.
IBM's grand opening at the building comes nearly a year after SL Green, the landlord of the property, finished repositioning the 19th century building into a 1.4 million-square-foot office tower. The developer worked with architecture firm Gensler on the project.
"This move will allow us to bring our employees, clients and partners together to work on exciting technologies, from enterprise AI to hybrid cloud to quantum," IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a statement.
Sen. Schumer pointed to an influx of talent as a positive for the tech companies such as IBM, but noted that the city must keep crime down in order to keep recruitment up.
"Tons of these people are young, well-educated people in their mid-20s who wanted to be here because of our culture, because of our diversity, because of buzz on the streets of New York, and because we are a relatively safe city," Schumer said. "And we have to keep crime down. That is so, so important if this city is going to survive and grow. It's the only thing that stands in our way."
Great idea, spend a ton on a lavish building while laying off thousands of workers in order to pay for it. Who do they think is going to fill this office? Likely did it for a tax break by New York State and not for any other reason.
They better be spending big bucks on sanitation, or otherwise the entire thing will be an utter waste. That commercialsearch article makes the buildout look more like marketing space for schmoozing customers rather than C-suite. An auditorium, rooftop terrace and bar are what salespeople use to woo well-heeled clients. C-suite people on the other hand have helicopters, corporate jets, personal assistants and executive dining rooms. The new digs are extravagant, and I'm sure some offices will be plush...but I suspect it's not for the C-suite.
I think the most important point is whatever but what really matters is more but(secks)!
They may be paying $1000 per square foot, but I’ll tell you where they aren’t spending any money: sanitation. Raise your hand if you’ve ever been to an IBM office where the bathrooms looked like a public toilet in a developing country because paying for housekeeping is apparently an unnecessary expense that went away with your 401k and benefits. Not to mention working with people with questionable personal hygiene. I’ve been to not just one but multiple offices that were like that. IBM has the filthiest offices of any company I’ve ever known, bar none. I give One Madison a month before you see a floater, a day-old sandwich, and overflowing rubbish bins. A metaphor for what’s happening in the C-suite if there ever was one.
This is a good cost saving move consolidating 12 leases in NYC into one location.
When the search started in 2020, the company was looking for 450,000 and 500,000 square feet -- so 328,000 square feet is a considerable reduction.
If you got it, flaunt it ! sounds just like the decay and destruction of the Roman Empire....only not quite as tasteful or elegant.
But then, who ever accused Alvind of having good taste ?