Millennial influence growing in residential, office, retail space design

Dive Brief:

The millennial demographic, now the largest cohort in the U.S., has seen an increased influence in all segments of construction design as landlords, retail stores and employers vie for their attention, according to Commercial Property Executive.
Millennial influences on design include prewiring of office spaces for Wi-Fi; game rooms, lounges and nap rooms in commercial buildings; a reduction in living space in desirable urban neighborhoods; and package and bike storage rooms in apartment buildings.
Overall, millennials put a premium on "comfort and time efficiency" and expect their live and work spaces to reflect that, according to CPE.

Dive Insight:

Although the open floor plan work environment — which gained popularity as a way to cut costs during the recession — still has plenty of fans, designers might soon have to address the noise factor for millennials. In an Oxford Economics survey, 50% of the millennials who work in an open environment complained about the noise and desired "uninterrupted work time." Millennials are also changing the face of the residential workforce as many large rental buildings have needed to hire delivery managers to handle the amount of online-ordered packages for tenants.

The biggest boon to developers, however, is the fact that millennials are willing to pay the same rents for a little less space, as long as the building's amenities and location are right. In the South Florida market, CPE reported that developers are including approximately 150 square feet less in each apartment with no damage to the rental rate.

Developers, landlords and retail outlets all gauge millennial interests and try to adjust their operations to fit that demographic, resulting in a miss more than a hit sometimes. For example, a Houston microcondo developer trying to capitalize on the millennial desire to live more simply recently met harsh reality in the form of disappointing presales. The developer has now changed the concept of the project to a short-term-rental-based "condo hotel" concept.

But is this really a millennial-inspired world, or are developers finally focusing on what everyone wants — simply forced into action by the sheer number of millennials? D.R. Horton recently announced its plans to launch a new line of baby-boomer-targeted homes after the homebuilder noticed that the older group had bought up almost 45% of the properties targeted toward millennials. And late last year, The Washington Post reported that downsizing baby boomers were selling off their larger homes and settling in what had been previously thought of as urban, millennial territory.