Twelve graduate students from the UF School of Architecture traveled to California to learn how Google and Intel design and manage their properties.
The trip was sponsored by the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce, and now that the students are back, it's their mission to apply what they saw to their own design plans in Gainesville.
David Ramsey, director of economic development for Gainesville's Council for Economic Outreach, said the city wants to attract more high-tech companies and industries with creative building designs.
Ramsey said Gainesville is already a hot spot of such development, but the city is too tight on space to provide interested firms with work areas.
The sites the students visited are some of the most progressive and successful in the field.
"Google is like a creative machine," Ramsey said. "Being around that, bringing some of those ideas back to the community… I can't tell you how incredible that is, how resourceful that is for us and what we do here."
Sihui Ma, a student on the trip, said she believes in the power of innovative office cultures.
"I think the point of the whole trip was to study alternative corporate cultures versus the one we think…the traditional kind with a cubicle."
Martin Gold, who teaches an advanced studio class all the involved students are taking, said he thought the trip was a great success.
"It was a real informative trip," he said. "I think we learned a lot about the next generation office environment."
The trick now is to shape those ideas to the Gainesville area.
"You can't just mimic what you see somewhere else," said Wes Hogan, another student. "It's really about individual city culture."
Ramsey thinks the intellectual power coming from UF helps make Gainesville a great place for new ideas.
"Every community says, 'we want to be high-tech,'" he said. "In this community we can."
