World's Coolest Offices | 2012

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These 20 offices are some of the world's best-designed and most awe-inspiring. Ping-pong tables and bright plastic furnishings are so 2011. This year, the companies with impressive digs havetaken a more nuanced approach to giving their employees a covetable workplace. Lavish libraries? Check. Classic mid-century modern chairs? Check. Exposed beams, bricks, and concrete? Definitely. Another observation: Several offices that made our list of editor's picks this year house relatively young (and very fast-growing) tech start-up companies. They're so cool they've pushed Facebook right off the list. Now, without further ado..

Microsoft

Location: Vienna
Square feet: 14,764
Designer: Innocad Architektur

Microsoft's latest office, completed in late 2011 for $3.6 million, contains elaborately themed conference rooms, including one decorated like an ocean and another like a hunting lodge. But perhaps this Vienna office's greatest feature is its expansive reception area, shown here. There's a massive green wall, a floor-to-ceiling x-ray of a computer, and a two-story slide that deposits riders into a bevy of geometric cushions.

Parliament

Location: Portland
Square feet: 4,000
Designer: Chris Erickson

Embracing an artisanal, hand-constructed look, Parliament floods its office with the rustic charm of a log cabin. With hardwood lining the floors and campfire logs covering the walls, it's hard to not think of the creative agency--with notable clients such as Gatorade and Xbox--as a second home. Attention is paid to every detail in the office, right down to the custom-made metal and wooden worktables and band posters.

Grupo Gallegos

Location: Huntington Beach, California
Square feet: 40,000
Designer: Lorcan O'Herlihy

The office of Grupo Gallegos, an advertising firm known for Spanish-language campaigns, is housed in a former movie theater with a view of the Pacific Ocean. Custom white umbrellas--360 in all--are suspended from the firm's ceiling, referencing studio photo shoots and the glamour of Hollywood Boulevard. They also hide the office's otherwise exposed sprinkler system. Founder John Gallegos's favorite perk is the maple-floor basketball court.