What Happened When the Office Came Home

Before the pandemic, architect David Hart noticed a growing glimmer of interest in a somewhat unfashionable interior feature: the home office. Hart is the president and CEO of Steinberg Hart, a firm that designs large mixed-use apartment complexes in cities around the world, among other projects. His clients had lately been asking about reducing the size of closets and bathrooms in favor of creating a small nook or alcove that fits a desk. Pre-Covid-19, only 10% to 15% percent of the apartment units his firm was building had some type of dedicated office space. Going forward, he says, he expects that figure will be more like 75%.

After fading in popularity since the 1990s, home offices have again become coveted real estate. Since coronavirus closed workplaces in cities nationwide, Americans’ work habits and environments have changed dramatically, with millions of professionals suddenly working from home. Affluent teleworkers are spending six figures installing high-end home offices, as the Wall Street Journal reports. The rest of us are sharing kitchen table and desk space with roommates, partners and children who are now homeschooled. Young urbanites in small apartments have had to get particularly creative in carving out a workspace, perching with laptops from hallways, closets and bathrooms. And thanks to another pandemic office staple, the videoconferencing platform Zoom, we’re able to change our actual background to what appears to be a much nicer office during video meetings.