CBRE Group, Inc. announced the opening of a flexible, high-tech office in Richardson, Texas, designed to enable hybrid work and create a seamless experience for in-office and remote participants. The 131,000-sq.-ft. office at Galatyn Commons houses the company's Dallas-based Digital & Technology, Finance, People and Supply Chain/Procurement staff.

The new office is part of the company's future-focused approach to workplace strategy, called Workplace360. Throughout the office, the company is testing various collaboration technologies to enable hybrid work, including: A camera view called “smart gallery” that follows a speaker as they move around the room and gives each in-room participant a meeting profile to allow remote attendees to engage as if they had a seat at the table; Touchscreens thatpromote next-level, mixed-presence collaboration, inviting in-person and remote colleagues to annotate and whiteboard together; Touch-free video conferencing thatallows employees to control presentations using voice activation or personal mobile devices to promote health and wellness. The physical office also features an XR (extended reality) studio where the company is exploring and testing applications for commercial real estate in the metaverse.

CBRE has already developed an exploratory-stage virtual office in the metaverse,which is being tested with select teams within the company.