Space: A Virtual Resource
Four years after an amicable sale to business partner Michael Brunner, Joe Blattner, founder of largest local employing advertising agency in Pittsburgh, Blattner Brunner, is beginning anew.

“I vowed to my wife that I wouldn’t just jump into anything immediately,” he says. Having dutifully kept his promise to his wife, Blattner now grins in consideration of emerging prospects.

It seems that Joe Blattner is as much at home at work as he is…well, at home. In fact, his goal remains the same in keeping with his legacy: Letting space work for people instead of people working around space. “My wife and I began with a desire to build our vacation home,” says Blattner during a tour of his home. “We chose to build where we could enjoy that lifestyle. We both golf and we love Pittsburgh, so we chose to build our vacation home right here at Nevillewood.”

For most, it simply would end there. But for Joe and Jane Blattner, it’s only where his experience with ”space” begins to unfold.

Blattner’s house sits comfortably on almost an acre of land on the high side of a cul-de-sac. It is a traditional brick home and modest in size by Nevillewood standards. Yet nestled behind its formidable exterior are all the comforts and whimsy that vacation homes are known for, including a first floor master suite. The design is open and free–flowing and, though non-extravagant, it is accented with indulgences that support their vacation lifestyle. There is no sofa in the living room. In fact, there is no living room at all. There are just two swivel recliners and three additional swivel chairs. “It’s just my wife and I, ‘His and Hers’,” says Blattner. “And the chairs are for conversation when we entertain.”

In keeping with the Blattner’s lighter-side-of-life approach, the rooms are accented with splashes of artwork that showcase the notable talents of Pittsburgh’s own Burton Morris, as well as Sergio Bustamante of Mexico. “Most of the art pieces were acquired while on vacation. They just make us feel good.”

Joe walks through the spaciously understated dining room. “Even the chandelier is from a vacation in New Orleans,” he says. He sits at a grand piano perched in the front window. “This is actually a computer. I enjoy tinkering a bit.” He pauses to play a few bars of electronically enhanced melodies from “Phantom” and shrugs his shoulders happily at the results. “I like the different sounds,” he smiles. It is apparent that, for him, to have nothing more or nothing less is absolutely fine.

As we settle up the home tour in the kitchen, Blattner points out that there are two dishwashers. “We do entertain a lot and one just would never be enough.”

With that, Blattner is ready for us to embark on what he is most excited to share. “The influences that you see here in my home are the same which have impacted the work environments that I would like to tell you about,” he says. Joe is thoughtful and engaging as he describes how rethinking the concept of space working for people instead of people working around space has made an impact on his life, and how he’s leveraged that influence to support and lead others to experience the benefits within their respective workspaces.

Photo courtesy of Ed Massery

“I’ve done a lot of thinking about what I feel has been one of my most significant individual contributions and it’s not what people might think,” says Blattner, “since the advertising agency was a team accomplishment. If there is one common thread that runs through all the places I have had a hand in making a positive impact, I would have to say that each has involved attention to space.”

But why space? “Space can play a major role in success,” he says, “because a well designed space is conducive to many of the essentials that make for success.”

It has been Joe Blattner’s experience along, with growing popularity, that spaces that are designed in response to people, their needs and company identity contain elements that support and incite creativity and teamwork. This also helps to foster a sense of belonging and to assert a positive company image.

On the contrary, spaces that divide, segregate, and alienate people seem to mandate that all people work best in boxes, that their needs are the same, and that all companies are the same. Such environments have long kept people and businesses from being as positive and productive as they could be. “How a space is designed,” says Blattner, “is reflective of a management or leadership who understand how optimizing communication and relationship create synergy which can catapult business forward. Creating an ideal space is the foundation upon which that synergy can freely flow.”

"…a well designed space is conducive to many of the essentials that make for success."

Photo courtesy of Ed Massery

For Blattner, the process of learning has been a progression. “As Blattner Brunner grew, we noticed the effects of space through our various leased locations. The value of high ceilings, for instance, and the ability it had to generate communication. We came to understand the power of color and sound and their ability to unleash communication and creativity, and so we incorporated into our space a lot of color and managed sound with white noise. It was beyond imagination that a professional business would have a concierge welcoming clients with freshly made salads instead of a receptionist guarding some executive office. Implementing offices without walls or doors revolutionized our thought processes and infiltrated our business practices. We took our professional services retail. We did things that typically were just not done in our industry or any industry for that matter. We changed the rules on how we did business. We were the only advertising agency that actually advertised.”

“Take signage for instance,” Joe says, smiling. “From Penn Avenue to Stanwix Street, we grew to understand the power of signage and its ability to become synonymous with a building.” Blattner chuckles at the many references to the “Blattner Brunner Building” at 11 Stanwix Street, which presently houses the company’s Downtown Pittsburgh offices. “It’s all because of a little rotating sign,” he says. “It began with noticing the value of high spaces and signage, and it grew from there to the open office environment. Removing barriers, not just physically, but working class-wise as well. If you are worth more, I should pay you more or your incentives should be more, not necessarily your space. If we are all working for the same business, it should be about coming together as individuals who contribute their unique specialty, not creating classes of people in the workspace. I had the big office. All that did was embarrass or intimidate co-workers who didn’t have big offices.”

It’s obvious that Joe Blattner is in his element, even though he’s been out of the office for some time. His trek with Blattner Brunner has equipped him with much sought after expertise. Today he remains in touch with the company he started and now holds the title as Chairman Emeritus. He speaks highly of his former colleagues, and credits his partnership with them for his success, most favorably his former chief partner Michael Brunner.

Joe now serves a number of organizations and businesses as an independent management and marketing communications consultant. Respironics and the agency’s former digs in Gateway Four have each adopted open office space designs in direct association with Joe Blattner’s ideals.

His power to affect an organization has also been reached through various board and membership positions that he has held. Temple Emanuel, in Mt. Lebanon and Auberle, in McKeesport, resonate with the influences of space relating to the needs of its occupants, adults and children alike. “At Temple,” says Blattner, “our Rabbi felt strongly that, overall, we needed to create more holy space. In that, we envisioned individual spaces according to the spiritual needs of the people. The finished result was as practical as designing adult education rooms with adult furniture to creating a solemn space dedicated to the needs of those in mourning. A new sign was also later developed, with a lot of Blattner influence, to create greater significance to our members’ arrival.”

Equally endeared to Joe’s heart is Auberle. “Auberle is Allegheny County’s largest facility for at-risk children. It is what folks used to call an orphanage.” His involvement with Auberle spans over 20 years and began as a philanthropic endeavor of the Blattner Brunner agency. “There is so much I could say about Auberle and it could get very emotional. But for today, what Auberle now has for these kids is a multi-functional space to visit with their families, and one another. The children needed a place for recreational living, a place to relax that wasn’t just their bed.” Though it may sound like a small thing, in fact, it was a very challenging capital funds campaign. “Foundations typically do not grant awards for brick and mortar projects. We needed to explain that this was much more than just a building. This was a space that would help to provide for the emotional, as well as the physical needs of the children. The only other space that children had prior to the ‘living space’ was their beds. We went to the community and to the foundations and told them that we were not raising money for more beds. We were raising money for the soft side of life. We were addressing their need for space.”

Exercising his ability of creative innovative solutions is what Joe Blattner does best. He has accomplished moving beyond his successful role as a member of the “Killer B” team, which was a tough act to follow.

For Joe, embarking towards new horizons has really been about taking everything he’s learned up until this point and investing it in other opportunities. A man who has known no boundaries, he thrives on meeting the unmet need and inventing solutions as is evident in his latest venture, COMPackage.com—what Joe claims to be “the world’s first self-service total compensation reporting system designed specifically for small business.”

“I thought a long time about what I wanted to do next,” he says. “I decided to look for something that could possibly have unlimited potential revenue, but with no employees, no overhead, and no receivables. Heck, I can dream, can’t I?” he smiles. “COMPackage.com can be all of that. Not because of what COMPackage might provide me, but rather the enormous value that an employer can provide both to his employees and his business by helping his staff realize the total value of their compensation package, and not only their base pay. The difference between the two can often be a factor of 2X.”

Photo courtesy of Ed Massery

“And for small employers,” he continues, “like those with 15-50 employees? Well, prior to COMPackage.com there was no economically viable way to participate in this valuable growing new industry arena—no total compensation reporting. A lot of best practice employers, including small employers, want to provide great places to work, or provide economic security for their people. Many do not know how. Most don’t think about how.”

Blattner, on the other hand, seems to have spent his life thinking about it and inventing ways of delivering on it. “Many folks have told me I’m very creative,” he says. “I’ve always laughed at that notion, working with great creative people all of my life, folks like Ann McFadden and David Vissat (two top creative executives at Blattner Brunner). I know what a great creative person looks like. I’m not one of those. I consider myself an inventor. I invent solutions to business problems that I see in the workplace. A door blocking management from staff is a business problem to me. A pay stub telling an employee one-third the story is a business problem to me. I thrive on identifying ‘problems’ like these and inventing solutions—problems that many other business owners never even consider as such.”

Joe Blattner understands that, in order to move people and businesses beyond their traditional mindset, you must first revolutionize what’s inside the box. Simplify the processes, don’t build walls, he says. And don’t just open the doors, remove them. That is the Blattner way.