Old Office Buildings Can Be Great

Nobody ever needed a space heater, or their own fan to keep warm or cool.

My first job in an office was a crazy looking building that was built in the 1970s. It was made out of loads of concrete, and looked pretty much like one huge concrete block. The place did not have many windows. One thing I learned though is that concrete is a great building material that moderates extreme temperatures. The building had a decent commercial HVAC system as far as I can remember, but it never had to blast loads of cooling or heating air ever. This was because of the way the building was mostly concrete. It would not heat up really fast or cool down really fast. It kept in whatever hot air or cool air the HVAC vents put through the air ducts. Nobody ever needed a space heater, or their own fan to keep warm or cool. This is unlike many of the other offices I have worked in, where it was common for people to try and find ways to make the indoor comfort temperature work for them. I did not realize how good I had it at that building! I later found out that buildings that are made out of lots of glass and steel can get really hot or really cold very fast. Maybe also because they were newer they were not built as well too. Because it really is often true that really don’t make them like they used to! I look back on my first office and I miss it sometimes in some ways, but change is a part of life one way or another.

 

Gas fireplace