E*TRADE San Francisco, California, USA E*Trade, a leader in on-line securities trading, is now on its way to implementing a larger vision of offering one-stop services covering not only securities trading but also other financial services such as banking, retirement pension and insurance. As part of their new office project to accommodate the firm that has grown so rapidly, it has recently created a new workplace for its development group. The South of Market District, or SOMA in short, is the hottest area in San Francisco, formerly a warehouse district built on reclaimed land. Ever since converting warehouses into offices became a trend, many dot com companies have converged in this area. E*Trade picked an 8 story building which used to be an old coffee warehouse, built in the late 19th century, and converted it to a new office in April of 2001. Studios Architecture, in charge of design, turned it into a unique office space with a design that actively reflected on its history. The facade along King Street is all glass. On both sides of the main entrance, the high ceiling ground floor is open to the half basement below, which makes the windowless half basement surprisingly bright. The reception is sided by a sitting area and a spacious café, both of which can be freely used by visitors. In their strategy to become a "one stop online financial supermarket," it is important to create a physical touch point for the customers outside the web interface. Large columns line up the length of the floor, but the spacing is smaller than usual offices. Backbone cables run between the columns, and workstations were placed around the columns. The remaining area became spaces for team uses. How to use a workspace can be determined to a certain extent by the group using it. At E*Trade, group sizes change frequently to adapt to market changes. The principle design concept is a priority on flexibility. The policy of maximizing flexibility is most well reflected on the choice of furniture. The furniture system can adapt to different workstyles of the groups. Each individual worker is given a great freedom to choose different elements of furniture. Samples are shown on the company website for each worker to pick and choose. The design group limited the selection so that any mix and match combination can still look coordinated. E*Trade maximizes the range of individual choices and meets individual needs. Workers feel that they are being valued, and enjoy satisfaction. Such detailed consideration in the long run will attract and retain the employees, the most important asset of the company.           Location: San Francisco, California, USA     Move-In Date: 2001.4     Floor Area:     Workforce:     Building Design: N/A     Interior Design: Studios Architecture     Interview Date: 2001.6