While some companies are giving up on office space altogether, one Maynard company has revamped its Civil War-era office space to meet its employees’ hybrid working needs.
Kaon Interactive Inc. creates interactive sales and marketing applications for B2B companies. Its work involves improving digital customer experiences through tools like virtual and augmented reality, or through physical spaces like trade show displays.
Scroll through photos of Kaon's office space in the slideshow above
The company’s latest creative project involved redesigning its own office space.
“About a year ago, we were having this sort of existential question, ‘Do we need an office?’” said Gavin Finn, Kaon’s president and CEO. “And we decided that the benefits of having an office were really significant for the kind of community that we are and the kind of growing company that we are.”
DEC SPACE
Since its founding in 1996, Kaon has spent much of its life within Mill & Main Place, a complex of brick buildings where carpets and later wool cloth used in military uniforms were produced for the Civil War. Digital Equipment Corp., or DEC, one of the largest computer companies of the 20th century, occupied the space for more than 30 years. Now the 50-acre campus bills itself as an office location for corporations and small tenants alike.
Finn said Kaon’s office used to be very traditional, with “lots of cubes.” The company sent its employees home to work remotely when the pandemic started, and when the team started to trickle back in during the summer of 2020, Finn said they realized the space wasn’t set up to meet their needs.
Employees who worked at the Maynard headquarters said they wanted the option to work remotely, Finn said, but when they came into the office, they wanted spaces to work together rather than isolated offices.
“The space itself, while big enough, was just not configured for collaboration and for the kind of working environment that people were starting to get used to, which was much more open and collaborative than working by themselves in a cube,” Finn said.
Kaon has just under 100 employees working across the U.S. and Europe, but more than half of its employees work from Maynard.
The process of revamping the office began a year ago, Finn said. Kaon worked with local firms, including Maugel DeStefano Architects, Walker Development & Construction Management and Methuen-based Ideal Office Solutions, according to a spokesperson.
The new office features workstations set up in groups, hybrid meeting rooms, a library, giant whiteboard walls and plenty of couches.
Kaon is following a hybrid work schedule and does not require employees to be in the office for certain days, Finn said.
“I think it’s going to be a blend of people coming in for those collaborations and meetings and discussions, but also once in a while people will just come in to be in the office so they can see their colleagues and have a little bit of that social interaction,” Finn said.
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