Workrite Betting that Corporate Execs Want Flexibility in Their Workspaces

Company is Introducing an Executive Version of the Desk Found in Open-Floor Plans
Workrite's Advent executive desk set to launch in October. Photo: Richard Lawson/CoStar Group
Workrite's Advent executive desk set to launch in October. Photo: Richard Lawson/CoStar Group

Much of today’s open-office environment has desks that connect to one another, or "benching" as the vernacular goes.

But “that’s not a look an executive wants in a private office,” said Derek Timm, product manager for Petaluma, California, based Workrite Ergonomics.

The company sells its share of desks for offices with open floor plans, but during NeoCon, one of the largest commercial design trade shows in the world, the company displayed its latest product specifically designed for executives. Named Advent, Workrite plans a full-scale launch in October.

Sitting front center in the company’s permanent space in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, the Advent desk's design draw inspiration from a classic Parsons table rather than the metal desks with pipe legs found in many open-floor-plan offices.

It’s no dumb desk either. It has similar technical accouterments of the open-office desks. The Advent desk also can be raised and lowered to give the executive the choice of standing or sitting.

The company doesn't have a stated price yet for the Advent. But a sit-stand Workrite desk can run $2,000 or more, depending on the desired functions.

Sitting or standing at a desk is one of the increasingly important trends in commercial office design. Tom Fritz, Workrite’s senior director of marketing and product development, the focus on ergonomics has been around for decades.

Like some early technology companies, Workrite started in a founder’s garage before outgrowing the space and moving into an industrial building. That was 1991. Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Knape & Vogt, a hardware maker, bought the company in 2007 to expand more into ergonomic products.

Fritz said that “over the past five years there’s been increased awareness” of perils of constantly sitting at a desk. The goal is creating healthy movement, and even executives need that.