The Office With More Than A Great View

His office was by far the most unique office I had ever seen. It wasn't, as might be expected for the owner of a fairly large Real Estate company, a big corner office with a great view.

No, his smallish office was located on the fourth floor of one of the commercial office buildings he owned that were populated by Lawyers, Mortgage Brokers, Therapists, and the like. It was just two doors down from the elevators, next to the corridor leading to the restrooms.

What made his office so unique, so special, was what he had done with the interior.

Which was, he made it an exterior.

By exterior I mean he had gone to great lengths (and expense) to turn his office into as close an approximation to his favorite place to be as was possible while still remaining in his office.

His favorite place to be was a beach.

A visitor, male or female, paying a visit to his office, was greeted by a receptionist who immediately asked what size shirt and shorts were preferred, and if you desired sandals or flip-flops. 

Once your choices and sizes were determined, you were given the appropriate clothing and directed to the changing rooms.

Many visitors had protested these unusual requests, and once a U.S. IRS agent had even threatened him with arrest, but eventually everyone wanting to engage him in an audience complied with his directives.

Frequent visitors had taken to dressing as he requested before they showed up, which had brought down a bit of ridicule on a few of them from their family members, friends, and co-workers who did not understand the protocols.

Those in the know did not care about the ridicule though, as being properly dressed in his office earned one a favorable ear, and as he was the type of businessman who could make everybody money, having his ear, or better yet, being privy to his insights, was more valuable than an original '66 Beatles Butcher cover of Yesterday & Today in stereo, from the Livingston collection.

The esoteric clothing directive was secondary however to the experience of being in his office. As mentioned earlier, his office had been made to resemble his favorite place - the beach.

And a beach it was. Visitors entering his office were greeted first by a short wooden boardwalk, which led directly to an expanse of sand. Real sand, wall-to-wall sand, to a depth of six inches. 

His desk resembled one of those cheesy palm-frond covered bars that are seen all over the pacific coast. It was right out of Gilligan's Island, built of bamboo and palm fronds, and even featured a hollowed-out coconut pen & pencil holder.

The chairs in front of his desk were, of course, traditional beach chairs. His desk chair was a slight variation of one, looking a bit more like a Hollywood directors chair, but made of bamboo.

The coup de grâce however, was what he had done with the walls. The walls were not bedecked with pictures of the tropics as one might expect...the walls were instead floor-to-ceiling, side-to-side, LCD screens that featured the view from all four sides of his beach house in Jacó, Costa Rica. A live view, from cameras he had installed himself. 

There was audio as well, of the ocean crashing upon the shore, as well as the sounds of birds and people.

It was spectacular.