770 Broadway. (Photo: vnony.com)

As Facebook expands in New York, it's doing it in a very fanciful manner. A company spokeswoman told Betabeat that its new office space at 770 Broadway will be designed by starchitect Frank Gehry with "open floor plans, natural lighting, and an emphasis on space for collaboration." And probably zero straight lines.

The new outpost is double the size of Facebook's current office on 335 Madison Ave., which will be shuttered. The entirety of FBNY will move in early 2014 into the spacious 100,000 square feet space in the Village where it will house people from sales, marketing, engineering, design, marketing, and communications. Facebook will be sharing elevators with Aol/Huffington Post, Billboard Magazine, and J. Crew and its lease term is for 10 years.

And, brace yourself, your office envy is about to grow: here’s going to be “plenty of video conferencing equipment” and a full-service kitchen. But, so sad, employees will have to settle for a complimentary gym membership, because there's no room to just build Facebook's own facility.

The team sounds downright starstruck to be working with Mr. Gehry, who is currently designing the expansion of Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park:

We've been extraordinarily pleased with his ability to delivery an incredible quality of design at a remarkably efficient price.  In fact, just as he did with our West Campus expansion, Frank has taken our budget needs into account with this building to ensure that it is both economical and efficient.

Comfy. (Photo: Google Plus)

Google is well-known for its opulent work spaces and fantastic perks, which make everyone else feel like we're working in Soviet-era prisons.  Look at that spacious rooftop at Club Goog’s New York office: it emanates so many chill waves that Washed Out could play an impromptu set at any moment.

And now there’s something else that’ll reignite that office envy: hidden rooms. Behind some bookcases at Google’s offices in Chelsea, there are hidden doors that open into cozy nooks, which are adorned with comfy leather chairs (like a secret Barnes & Noble!).

iCrossing’s Tarah Feinberg posted the creepshot on his Google Plus page (how appropriate!), captioning it “coolest thing ever.”

We imagine the secret rooms are the perfect place to hide from your project manager.

H/T Search Engine Roundtable

(Photo: MTV)

If the sunny, overblown drama of Bravo's Start-Ups: Silicon Valley has left you aching for a bleaker take on Valley culture, then we have some wonderful news for you. Deadline reports that HBO has just greenlit a new pilot called Silicon Valley, produced by cult comedy icon Mike Judge.

The show will be a single-camera affair, offering a dark take on the "high tech gold rush of modern Silicon Valley, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success." You know what that means: hoodies!

Mr. Judge has been responsible for such iconic works as Office Space, Idiocracy and--of course--Beavis and Butt-head, so we're confident that he'll be able to supply the Valley with the healthy dose of comedic cynicism it so desperately needs. He'll be directing the project, which is slated to begin filming in the spring. King of the Hill producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky are also on board.

But what of the Valley's pristine reputation? Will it be sullied by HBO? Area bloggers who clutched their pearls over Start-Ups believe that because Silicon Valley is labeled as fiction up front, it can't do "actual harm." With Mr. Judge’s take, at least we won’t have to worry our pretty little heads over how to separate fact from fiction.

Mark Zuckerberg (flickr.com/gpaumier)

We can cluck all we like at Facebook's IPO woes, but things are still going well enough for the social networking giant that legendary architect Frank Gehry is collaborating with Zuck to build Facebook West. As Bloomberg tells the story, it sounds like Mr. Gehry's creation may end up being a giant, wide-open, techie's paradise:

"If you decided to traverse the huge floor via RipStik, you might wave to co-workers talking outside pop-up pavilions called war rooms and devoted to launching products.

"You would pass no private office or cubicle, but you could circle a glass-partitioned space at the very center of the floor where you might find Zuckerberg."

There will even be outdoor cafes serving "sushi and barbecue."

A RipStik, by the way, is "a two-wheeled cross between a skateboard and snowboard," according to Bloomberg's James Russell, who writes that it might be "the perfect means" to traverse Facebook West's 10 acre space.

The goal for Mr. Gehry's wide-open and RipStik-friendly space is to inspire Facebook staff and create an atmosphere that generates innovation and brilliant new ideas. Mr. Gehry told Bloomberg he seeks "a kind of ephemeral connectivity that you can't take a picture of."

Mr. Gehry also admitted to Bloomberg that he "has yet to master Facebook," but being 83 and a famous architect, he really doesn't have to. No one apparently bothered to ask if he could work a RipStik, which might be a much more interesting question.

Esty's Dumbo office via Fred Wilson on Foursquare

At an industry breakfast yesterday, the commercial real estate brokers at Cushman & Wakefield announced that New York City has reached a tipping point: For the first time since 1999, the information and media sector (including technology) beat out financial services terms of office leasing.

In the first quarter of 2012, information and media accounted for 27.8 percent of office leasing by square footage, compared to the financial sector's 26.3 percent. "New York is not just a financial town anymore,” Cushman's managing director Ken McCarthy told the Real Deal.

You don't have to tell Dumbo. Yesterday, the Brooklyn Paper reported that commercial vacancy rates in the neighborhood are down to 2 percent, prompting city planners to try to make Downtown more appealing to Brooklyn's creative class. "Everyone in the tech industry wants to be in DUMBO," said the paper. And here we thought the ideal spot was spitting distance from Union Square Ventures.

Betabeat reached out to real estate broker Chris Havens, an expert in Dumbo's cobblestone streets and East River vistas, to find out more.

According to Mr. Havens, who pegged the vacancy rate at 3 percent, it's a matter of capacity. Dumbo has 1.26 million square feet of leasable office space across just nine buildings, which Mr. Havens said was equivalent to "a few blocks in Midtown South." One hundred and fifty leases have already been signed in the last year and a half.  "This has been building for a long time and it has a lot more to do with the economy," he said noting the proliferation of graphic design, affiliate marketing, consumer tech, architectural, and other creative startups in Dumbo. "It's getting tighter and tighter and tighter."

Mr. Havens said three counties in the country dominate in terms of creative business tenants: L.A. county, New York county, and Kings county. "Brooklyn is booming. In fact some people think there are more creatives in BK than Manhattan," he said, but added a note of skepticism, "Who knows?"

In Dumbo, the two biggest tech tenants are Etsy, "an Ebay for twee people," as the Brooklyn Paper describes it, and Wireless Generation. The amount of space those two companies have taken up has "pushed other tenants out," said Mr. Havens.

But don't founders want to be General Assembly-adjacent? "There’s way more tenants like this in Union Square," Mr. Havens admitted. "But this is $27 dollar [per-square-foot] space. So it doesn't matter what people like in Manhattan."

For Brooklyn residents that want to work close by, there are increasingly fewer options, he said. "There's no space in Fort Greene. Gowanus is tight too. They don’t like Downtown."

As the Brooklyn Paper notes, neighborhood groups are trying to do something about that.

"The DUMBO Improvement District, Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership have joined forces to launch a task force seeking ways to nurture the borough’s tech sector, both inside DUMBO and beyond. That includes making Downtown more palatable for startups by improving streetscapes, creating a shuttle-bus system between the startup neighborhoods, and providing attractive commercial space."

We're inclined to go with commenter SwampYankee, who wrote, "Because anyone that works in software for a living will tell you a really cool nabe is essential to delivering a quality product in a timely manner. Talent really has nothing to do with it." But maybe we're just jelly. Betabeat is stuck in The Observer offices at Hell's Kitchen, which aside from some standout tacos and a Shake Shack outpost, really lives up to its name.

SeatGeek's Space at General Assembly, image by Dan Frommer

This is a guest post from SeatGeek co-founder Russell D'Souza.

Prior to moving offices in early June, SeatGeek worked first out of Soho Haven (now Projective Space) and then at General Assembly, two shared office spaces in New York. In the early days of SeatGeek, shared office space was a complete no-brainer, but what was much less clear was when to “graduate” to our own office space. Since many startups have been asking us about this of late, I thought we’d break down some of the criteria we evaluated when making this decision.

Cost

Here in New York, there are a bunch of different pricing structures for shared office space. Some places charge by the desk, others have a membership fee, and others charge for larger, multi-user tables. In almost all cases, shared office space for a tiny startup is far cheaper than a short-term lease. However, at about 12 employees, a dedicated lease became comparable to the cost of upscale shared space like General Assembly.

Company culture

The most successful startups have a distinctive culture. As you can tell by our company name, we’re pretty into data and we have a particular obsession about our company’s performance metrics. In fact, you can’t turn a corner in our office without seeing a poster or television screen displaying PR scores, server response time, or traffic. In a communal office space, we couldn’t share this level of sensitive detail since we had no control over who comes through the door. Since moving office space, we could be more transparent about SeatGeek’s metrics to everyone’s benefit.

Flexibility in growth

Shared office spaces often cap the size of individual teams to prevent exposure to one large tenant. We were nervous that this cap could have a subconscious effect on how we approached growth. We’re always looking to hire talented folks and never want to limit our aspirations based on office space limitations. Our new office can fit over twenty people comfortably. We’re a little over half that today but it’s reassuring that we can scale up quickly.

Dedicated amenities

Shared office space means sharing amenities like the fridge and cabinets. As a result, it’s infeasible to have a full suite of food and drinks options for your team, which means that folks waste time and money purchasing lunches and snacks at the nearest deli. At SeatGeek HQ our pantry and fridge is always stocked and this yields a happier and more productive team.

Given all the positives of our own space, why do I say that shared office space is a no-brainer for most early-stage companies? Shared office spaces take care of administrative hassles like hiring cleaners and purchasing office furniture, allowing early-stage startups to focus on building a product and getting traction. Importantly, shared office spaces offer an immediate network of entrepreneurs. We’ve done partnerships with neighboring startups, gotten product feedback, and received key introductions to investors. There’s a deep camaraderie you build with neighboring startups and some of my closest friends in the startup community have come because we worked a few feet away.

It was certainly tough to sever our immediate connection with other startups when we moved to our office. However, by the time we left, we had a strong network in New York’s tech scene and it didn’t feel as if staying in a shared office space was worth compromising on the benefits listed above. For those interested in checking out our new space or if you have specific questions, please don’t hesitate to us directly at hi@seatgeek.com.

“We probably won’t see a massive flood gate of VC firms flocking to New York but I do think there will be probably several more firms looking for office space there," Emily Mendell, a spokesperson for the NVCA told the site, warning that it would likely just mean offices to house a few limited partners. But tech companies themselves are stretching their wings.

Brendan McGee, the New York City regional manager for TechSpace, with locations in prime tech corridors like Chelsea, the West Village, and Union Square, told the site, "We’re close to fully occupied at all three New York City locations, so I’d definitely say our demand is high.” Rents there, which range from $1,200 a month for a 100 square foot space to $20,000 for a 35 person office suite, include administrative IT support staff. Past clients like LinkedIn, Trulia, and Pandora moved out after outgrowing of the space.

As start-ups like Gilt Groupe scale, so has the amount of room it occupies at its headquarters on 2 Park Ave. Growing pains are even prompting some start-ups are looking beyond the city's borders. In Etsy's case, it sounds like its customer service building is headed all the way upstate.

You can't borrow a stapler over the net.

Coworking is a growing trend among New York's freelancers, especially for the tech set. Instead of plugging away in their pajamas or snagging a spot at the wi-fi cafe, coworker prefer a more organized, office atmosphere.

But how much does it really save, or cost, to rent a desk in this kind of co-working space?

According to a study from Deskwanted.com, a startup that helps users find coworking and shared office space.

A dedicated desk in a coworking space with full facilities and 24/7 access costs an average of $424 a month in New York, only slightly above the national average.

Switching to business hours only cuts the cost to just $227 a month. Not bad when you consider that it costs $1312 a month it costs to maintain a workspace in traditional corporate office.

According to Deskwanted.com, there are now 18 coworking spaces in New York including New Work City in SoHo and Hive at 55 in the Financial District, with new spaces set to come online soon.

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper