He Builds Company Towns

Build a city gate. In the past several decades, office buildings have been built to accommodate cars, not people. By creating a city gate (Ludwig uses flowering trees outside many Cisco buildings to achieve this effect), newcomers can locate the entrance, and employees have a sense of arriving someplace other than a parking lot.

Put in a piazza. Rome's piazzas were built around water wells that served the neighborhoods near them. A company piazza should be a place where people come for a specific reason. It should be surrounded by the offices or cubicles of the people it's meant to serve, so that they can linger.

Power up a plaza. A plaza is a thoroughfare where people from different walks of life -- or work -- can meet, talk, move on, and get someplace else with relative ease. A plaza can be created by opening up space in a cubicle farm and making a pattern, such as spokes on a wheel, that forces people to go through at least one part of the plaza to move from one office to another.

Create a quiet street. It's a place to take a breath and reflect -- and creating such an area is surprisingly easy. Put a bench or chair in an outdoor area with sun or shade, depending on what environment you lack inside the office. Indoors, a row of plants with a chair facing away from the main traffic will do.