Zappos' office of the future

In the design of its new Las Vegas headquarters, the online retailer Zappos.com will force employees to bump into each other.

Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh said other companies' corporate campuses are "actually really insular," and did not lend themselves to interactions among employees of different departments, or between the company and the outside environment.

So the new Zappos complex is designed to maximize what Hsieh calls "water cooler moments," even when there is no actual water cooler.

Left: An artist's rendering of the plaza at Zappos' new headquarters.

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan

The old Las Vegas City Hall - an 11-story tower which opened in 1973, with an addition made three decades later - was vacated in 2012, and is being renovated for use as the Zappos headquarters.

Left: An artist's rendering of the second floor terrace of the new Zappos.com headquarters.

To maximize the serendipity of different employees interacting with one another, the designers reduced the number of pathways in and out of the existing complex from 19 to two. A sky bridge leading from one parking garage was also closed off.

"We intentionally make certain parts of the campus less convenient, prioritizing the desire to have [employees] connect with one another," Zach Ware of Project 100, who helped design the new headquarters, told correspondent Martha Teichner.

Left: A rendering of the headquarter's lobby.

"Most innovation in your industry comes from outside your own department," said Ware. "A developer talking to an artist, or a merchandising buyer talking to a painter - these are opportunities for innovation that you don't have the further apart you're spaced.

"We build pathways and interesting spaces to, in a sense, attract [employees] magnetically to hang out with each other, or provide alternatives to a conference room," said Ware.

Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh said his company's number one priority is the company culture. "Our whole belief is that if we get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like delivering great customer service or building a long-term enduring brand or business, will just be a natural by-product of that.

"So we encourage our employees to actually interact as much as possible, both inside and outside of the office . . . get employees to actually be more than just co-workers, but actually develop true friendships so they hang out with each other outside of the office on weekends."

Such relationship, said Hsieh, will not only bolster employee satisfaction but also boost upward mobility and employee retention.

Left: A rendering of the roof terrace at Zappos.com's new headquarters.

Ware said that people in office environments that are "overdesigned for work" tend to see the same four walls every day, losing the ability to have random ideas inspired by seeing things they wouldn't expect to see. "If you see the same wall every day, you're probably gonna think about that wall every day," Ware said.

Ware told Teichner Zappos is also aiming to "expand the concept of an office to include a larger area, so that we can actually take teams and put them in sort of 'co-working spaces' and other work spaces that happen to co-exist with retail stores or elsewhere.

"So the idea is that we create these environments that encourage people to move around and see different things," said Ware. "The concept of your office becomes something that isn't necessarily just centered inside of four walls."

Left: A rendering of the roof terrace at Zappos.com's new headquarters.

For more info:
Zappos.com
Downtown Project
Project 100
KMD Architects, San Francisco
Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects, Las Vegas

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan