Gallery: WeWork's Radical Plan to Remake Real Estate With Code

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    WeWork
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    WeWork, the hugely successful shared office startup, is now valued at $16 billion.
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    The company’s physical footprint is staggering. It leases 2.7 million square feet of real estate in Manhattan alone (it is the borough’s largest private tenant), and operates 77 work spaces in the United States, Canada, and Europe. WeWork expects that number to top 100 by the end of the year. This latest round of funding—a reported $430 million from Chinese investors—signals a move into Asia.
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    To help the company grow, last August WeWork bought architecture firm Case, Inc. It was WeWork's first acquisition.
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    Case specializes in a technologically advanced method of designing spaces, called building information modeling. It's allowed WeWorks to increase space efficiency by 15 to 20 percent.
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    All of WeWork's offices have a carefully crafted aesthetic—like a collegiate twist on Ace Hotel’s lobbies.
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    As WeWork’s founders see it, you can’t become the brand name of co-working spaces by opening plain loft spaces filled with ergonomic task chairs.
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