Freestyle, an outmoded concept of office design, has been almost universally derided and abandoned by every other company which implemented the design years ago. The high density, noise, distractions and lack of privacy contributed to a marked decline in productivity and employee morale. In addition, studies found that employees lost all connection to the workplace and eventually to the company. @kys is correct. It was a clever way to save money by packing more employees into a smaller space. By marketing the concept as desired by the new generation of workers (millennials, etc.) anyone who disliked the design was instantly labeled archaic and unwilling to evolve in the modern workplace. Companies around the country spent millions of dollars on the new designs, only to tear it all down years later and replace it with...you guessed it...offices and cubicles. The only ones who profited were the office design architects and furniture companies who originally sold the freestyle design to the company executives and later convinced the same executives to return to the old style based on their "exhaustive research." Before I left Nike, Dan Fouts was being gutted to construct the "new" and "innovated" freestyle design. In a few years they will follow the same pattern and spend millions to return to the old design. I understand the new buildings will have the freestyle design. The definition of crazy is repetitively engaging in the same action while expecting a different result. I left Nike in the middle of all this craziness and have no regrets. My biggest lesson from Nike is that nothing is done for the benefit of the employees. That includes new office designs, unlimited PTO, transfers, and reorganizations. If they are selling it as good for the employees you can guarantee it's about cutting costs at your expense. If you believe otherwise, then you meet the definition of crazy.
Bumped from @PAXSkVF-1mvt for being 100% right.