Companies Spruce Up Offices to Recruit

It’s no secret that there are more jobs than qualified applicants in the high-tech and entertainment industries. Competition is fierce for talent, and with everything else being equal, often the company with the best work environment wins, experts say. So, instead of housing workers in hermetically sealed towers with as many cubicles to the floor as possible, managers are now setting up enticing work spaces with bold, wacky architecture, higher ceilings, natural lighting and even gourmet cafeterias, said Ron Nestor, design principal of Costa Mesa-based architectural firm McLarand Vasquez & Partners.

Entrepreneurial firms are also figuring out ways to take advantage of one of Southern California’s benefits--good weather--by designing campuses surrounded with nature elements such as miniature lakes, meandering paths and trees.

In Orange County, Nestor’s firm is working on the design for Fluor Corp.’s new hillside campus in Aliso Viejo. The engineering and construction giant will move from Irvine to the new facility in 1999.

Melinda Fulmer covers real estate for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7832 and at melinda.fulmer@latimes.com