The humble beginnings, bearing some of my fondest memories, take me back to the Production Assistant days at R/GA New York. When I first walked into the infamous 450 W. 33rd Street office, I was enamored – 200,000 square feet of open plan office sprawled across two floors larger than a football field each overlooking the Hudson Yards development. Seemingly endless rows of state-of-the-art Ketra lighting, privacy pods, huge screens, galore. This place was the future. Hell, it even had a documentary about it! Gary Hustwit’s 2016 “Workplace” is a deep dive into the past, present, and future of the office. It follows the design and construction of the New York headquarters of R/GA, exploreing the intersection of digital and physical space. Pushing innovations (at the time) in digital tools, lighting, furniture, and infrastructure to make it the best place for collaboration. It was my first job out of college, graduating with a degree in Advertising and being an avid industry buff – I was equally interested in New York agencies’ work as much as their office space. Remember, this was when people had to go to an office everyday.. In my first year as a PA, before getting promoted into the actual client work on the Account/Production track, I picked up whatever tasks I could around the office and supported various teams. My nimble team was responsible for the upkeep of the flagship office for nearly 1000 employees. I was the go-to tour guide for client visits and other outside parties wanting to see the space. We managed an array of over 30 connected screens, which also doubled as an in-house R&D for digital OOH experiments. Additionally, served on the construction / development team working with Fosters+Partners with plans to rollout global iterations of “Connected Spaces” to other R/GA offices – and also pitch as a business model for other companies to adopt. Watch "Workplace": https://vimeo.com/407343244