My dream office would be a Swiss chalet at the foot of a mountain. Multiple giant roaring fireplaces going 24/7. Ski in ski out. Girls in Bavarian outfits serving Oktoberfest beer and food. Backbone Internet speeds. 27" iMacs all around with matte screens and SSD's. Treadmill desks. Weightroom, sauna, soaking tub, raquetball, basketball court, full time Swedish masseuse. Banksy tags outside. Old masters and some crazy art from some tag artist friends inside. A Newfoundland that hangs out. No conference rooms. Giant whiteboards that slide up and down like they had in college. Sound proof meditation room. Those Red leather chairs they use on stage at allthingsD. Aston Martin fleet. Ridiculous gun room. Huge bbq, smoker on the rooftop. Taco truck outside. Automated laundry service. Machine shop with 5 axis CNC machines and 3d printers.

I don't know where that came from... seams prudent.

Have you considered a career as a James Bond antagonist?

Yes but we will antagonize out of touch, established companies with sharks fitted with lasers while making better software/hardware. And have perennially dominating Formula 1 team.

You can actually do better by selling software and hardware infrastructure to other evil geniuses working to antagonized (er... disrupt) established companies.

Maybe this place has office space? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schilthorn

Why it took you two hours to get an upvote is beyond me! revolving restaurant on top of a mountain?

* Full-immersion display and prototyping CAVE / bubble

* Various art robots. One would greet me with "Home again, home again, jiggedy-jig. Hello, J.A."

* Tennis court

* Machine shop

* Personal SCUBA tank with space-station truss mockup and Russian Orlan space suit / dive suit.

OR

* personal submarine / office

OR

* I could just get back to work, in my office adjoining the laundry room. Time to replace the fluorescent bulb. I can see it flickering. Haven't had to squash any centipedes yet this week.

You've just given me something to work toward.

Why matte screens?

Probably because they're less reflective and reduce eye strain.

Thanks for the answer.

Despite what the person downvoting my comment may think, it was a sincere question, not an attempt to troll.

I have recently ordered a new macbook pro, and had to make a choice between matte and glossy, so I had a genuine interest in the answer.

I am biased but this looks insufferably sterile compared to where I work:

http://tycole.blogspot.com/2010/05/etsy-office-in-dumbo-hang...

Esty's office space looks sweet, but how do they keep that place clean? Even in normal offices I am always surprised how must dust collects everywhere and that is with cleaners coming in every day... can't imagine anyone ever dusting a giant owl.

It is a bit of a mystery to me, too, but it's clean. Equal parts office managers, people pitching in, a custodian every night, and my dachshund patrolling the ground for remnants of food.

I guess I'm in the minority but that office doesn't look attractive to me at all.

It left a dark, cold and sterile impression on me...

Come on by next time you're in Chicago. See how you feel about it in person.

Jason, there's an HN Chicago e-mail list. Care to give us a tour of the new space? Would love to see it.

Sure, we could do that. Email me at [email protected].

E-mail sent!

I agree. It's very big and cold looking, super uncomfortable.

It looks like a lot of offices I've seen, with some nice unique touches added. Bene of Austria design a lot of offices in this style (well, to my eye anyway, that's what it reminded me of): http://bene.com/office-furniture/office-projects/

Here's Microsoft Belgium: http://bene.com/office-furniture/microsoft-belgium.html

I think it will warm up with more people and personalization. Its an attractive office but yes a bit sterile. It still needs to be broken in a bit.

(I like it - but see your point)

I was surprised by the chalk boards, do other devs/designers people really prefer those over whiteboards?

Perhaps it's a contrarian thing?

Most developers use whiteboards, so the exceedingly tasteful folks at 37signals will surely use something more refined.

I don't like the look or sound of whiteboards. They don't age well either. I love the feel, sound, look, texture, and patina of chalk on a nice dark chalkboard.

I love chalkboards. It's a tactile thing. They're more work to keep clean and slower to clean, but I keep a blackboard at home instead of a whiteboard.

I think a lot of modern architecture tends to look cold when photographed like this. However, in person I bet the textures I see on walls becomes more apparent which warms up the space.

btw, this looks like a great place to play LazerTag.

True. The space is full of really rich textures. From the different woods we choose, to the felt walls, to the cork and carpet. Plus it's a corner office on the second floor with huge windows - the trees and big sky outside bring a lot of color and texture, too.

I'm amazed/impressed at just how much open space they seem to have in the office.

Most of the offices I've been in feel cramped to me. Most tech companies are especially cramped with people sitting right next to one another all day long. I'm not a fan of that arrangement.

One of the ideas behind our space was plenty of space for everyone to move around. No one should ever feel cramped while they're working. Feeling cramped is a form of stress - this is meant to be as stress-free a space as possible.

Looks amazing, just watch out for the "curse of a new building".

http://steveblank.com/2009/05/15/supermac-war-story-11-the-c...

Is there anything that Steve hasn't written about? :)

Kudos to Jason for giving nice referrals (with links!) to his vendors. I wish we'd see more of this.

[Aside: Is that DHH having a snack at the stainless steel table, and was he really working or just surfing Hacker News?]

I'll be writing up a post about what it was like working with each vendor as well. Not sure when I'll get around to it, but I'm looking forward to sharing the experience.

Seems like it would be "loud" to me. While I think it looks awesome, the fact that they have a room for the phone means that it probably echoes a good deal with that roof.

I'm a bit of a Spolsky-ite when it comes to office space - everyone should have an office - so it isn't my dream layout, but I will say the design is very, very cool.

It's actually very quiet in person. The space reminds me of a university library. Most of the materials, from the carpet, to the felt paneling, to the corkboard in the team rooms, to the dividers between desks, to the tiles on the rear walls, were chosen specifically for their sound-dampening qualities.

The phone booths are a reaction to our former space where we'd get up and go out into the hallway to take phone calls. They exist because we value privacy, not because the office is too loud.

Cool, thanks for the additional info.

Not just a separate room for a phone, but something that looks like a mountain shack on the outside and an interrogation room on the inside. Are they trying to actively discourage phone calls?

That was my exact thought on seeing the lunchroom. Hard surfaces all around, or did I miss something?

I've seen this link of inventionland offices today: http://www.officesnapshots.com/2010/09/29/inventionland-offi... - looks even better than pixar's animators booths.

Better? How could you stay sane in that environment?

Why couldn't you?

It's so far-fetched and fake that I'd end up dressing like Willy Wonka and try hiring midgets to do my work.

Hah, fair enough! Pixar seems to be doing a fine job in an environment similar to that one though. Probably depends on the job you're doing too. I couldn't imagine walking into a bank that has clerks on a pirate ship... or maybe I could.

Mostly a promotional tool to continue its mostly shoddy Invention Services packages. This "office" is geared towards its consumers, not as a functional work space.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&rlz=1W1ADRA...

I work in the same office park as Inventionland. Every time I drive by it I wonder what they do in there. Now I kinda want to go take a tour.

Great textures going on. Like the space a lot.

Maybe update the story title? The company name is "37signals", not "37 Signals". (Some people consider the distinction pedantic, but I'm a pedant.)

I like all the small conference rooms. Would love to have a ton of small rooms. Not for meetings, but when we want to pair/talk something out, often go somewhere where we wouldn't disrupt others. Plus easier for video/phone conferencing with someone remote. Small room, few chairs, phone, table, and a whiteboard. Plenty of markers and erasers, since those always get stolen.

I love the textures. I also love the contrast of the wood and concrete. It also looks very well lit.

The first thought that came to mind was that this is the type of office space that Howard Roark would architect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Architectural_...

Very nice. This office seems to fit their philosophy very well -- clean and simple without excess distractions. I wonder if they studied existing research on the effects of workspace on productivity and creativity.

Perhaps, this will start a new trend in office design for SaaS companies.

"Very nice, very nice. How much?"

Seriously, very curious of a ballpark figure for the renovation.

A bit over a million total for everything including furniture.

Thanks. Money well spent it seems :)

Congratulations to Jason Fried & David Hansson for new good looking office.

why down vote. Should i take my congratulations back.

You were most likely downvoted because people don't want threads filling up with a bunch of "congrats!" type comments, which are admittedly friendly but don't really add anything to the conversation.

Even though one or two might not seem like too many, "none" is a simpler heuristic than "how many are there? Ok, we have enough, downvote any new ones..."

Thanks much!

I really like the clean industrial style of the new offices.

Looks nice, but it's still in Chicago - no thanks :-)

Ok, Spolsky.

I'd say the same thing about New York. Places matter a lot to me, and I couldn't handle living and working somewhere that far from the mountains, and with that kind of climate, no matter how nice the office is.

I couldn't imagine living somewhere so far from a massive freshwater lake with beautiful beaches. To each his own!

I never understood this mentality. Why do all the "Cool" companies have to live on the coast? It bothers me that I have to live 2000 miles away from my family if I want a great job. The Midwest has many appealing features.

I live over 9000km from my family because I wound up somewhere I liked. It's not on the coast and it has nothing to do with companies. Everyone has different priorities, I'm just expressing mine.

BTW, in the US, Boulder seems to have some 'cool' companies, and is pretty far from the coast itself.

Please help me understand what those appealing features are. I am not being snarky. My wife is currently trying to get me to consider moving back there because everything is cheaper. Sure, it's cheaper: it is, as far as I am currently concerned, a less desirable place to live. Being from California, I'm clearly snobbish. So seriously, what am I missing about the Chicagoland area? Keep in mind: I'm used to nice weather, beautiful and varied natural environment, and a distinctive culture. And thin people.

It really depends on what you are looking for, and all of the points you made are true. However, Chicago has some great things going for it IF you like living IN the city. Chicago's winters are brutal, but the rest of the year is gorgeous. Chicago overall has much better weather than San Fran, though much worse than the rest of the Bay Area. If you want to raise a family, while living in the city, it is both doable and affordable here. Areas like Wicker Park and Lakeview have pretty tree lined streets, brick 3-flats, amazing restraunts, coffee shops, record stores etc etc. The bars are amazing, good music venues, oh and you will never have to get behind the wheel drunk because you cannot walk 5 feet without seeing a cab for hire. There are great artist and developer communities here, as well as a budding startup scene.

I am not saying you should rush out of San Fran for Chicago, but if you are considering moving here you should give it serious consideration.

One caveat, for the love of god don't move to the suburbs. They are filled with mid-westerners. scary.

In terms of things I don't like about California that might be better elsewhere:

* "Real people" as someone said below. People can be kind of fake and superficial in certain parts of California.

* People in it for the long haul: so many people in places like the Bay Area are not planning to stay there. Indeed, unless you make a lot of money, it can be pretty difficult to stay there if you want things like a family. In any case, people are constantly coming and going, so you tend to be a little bit more guarded/less committed in your dealings with people, whereas elsewhere, people stick around a bit more, so you can get to know them with less fear that they'll be leaving soon.

Real people. Real hot dogs. Deep dish pizza. Awesome neighborhood festivals. Great architecture. And of course, the Cubs.

@MayorEmanuel would like to have a word with you.

Sterile, pretentious, cold. As expected :/

Come by sometime and you'll see its none of those things.

On the end of the video, the guy is using an iMac right beside a huge window. No way this would work.

It's real, it works. It's a north facing bank of windows - no direct sun.

Gorgeous!

The 37 signals worship here is a tad bit annoying.