My place of work moved to a beautiful new campus this week. Its awkwardly located in the middle of a residential subdivision in north San Diego, I hope the residents knew this was coming when they made their purchases. Some of my co-workers live within walking distance, for one walking between buildings on campus is longer than walking home.

The layout of the offices is unique. Most floors are subdivided into courtyards. Each courtyard features 8 individual offices around a large collaborative work area. This layout promotes collaboration while also allowing each individual to close their door and “get in the zone”. I’ve worked in a similar layout for the last several years and its works really well. Many employers forget the importance of individual offices on productivity as Joel on Software argues, fortunately my employer took the effort to maintain individual offices on our new campus.

The campus also features a beautiful sunset with hot air balloons and a Starbucks…its a fake Starbucks like the ones you find in airports, the baristas aren’t real Starbuck employees but work for a catering company.