A local tech company is celebrating another year of comfort and innovation in its Bethesda headquarters as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Brivo has been around for a while, making cloud-based software for buildings' physical security systems. It moved into its headquarters in 2013, but despite its age, the space hasn't lost any of its creative startup vibe.
The office has an open seating plan, with red chairs behind white tables strewn about the space. Large conference rooms on the sides open up to tall windows, but they can be fully darkened for Brivo's frequent training seminars.
The company's leaders gave its conference rooms names that are true to their techie roots like Cerf, Edison and Moore, as well as Smartbox – sentimentally named for its first product. Its products are spread throughout the office, and of course, many of them are being used to secure it.
The space also includes a video game room, large "phone booth" spaces for quiet work, demo rooms, technology testing labs and a well-stocked cafe for employees.
The 19,000-square-foot space is LEED-certified and hosts 165 employees. When Brivo moved in six years ago, President and CEO Steve Van Till had a clear vision for the space.
“Think of any of the lofts in New York or San Francisco; we’ve gone back to that kind of design for the office, but we’ve done it with a better environment and surroundings than what you usually have in a startup," he said in 2013. "So for me, this new space signifies going back to the creative startup roots that we’ve had in the company.”
See how his vision played out at Brivo's Maryland headquarters and product lab:
