Integrating Perceptual and Behavioral Evidence to Evaluate Hybrid-Ready Public Workspaces: A Mixed-Methods Study of the LADWP WorkHub

Hybrid workplace environments are increasingly adopted in public-sector organizations; however, empirical evidence on how these spaces function in practice remains limited. This study evaluates space utilization and workplace experience in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) WorkHub, a hybrid-ready and technology-enabled workplace, using a convergent mixed-methods post-occupancy evaluation grounded in affordance theory. Phase I consisted of a participatory Think Tank session with 24 employees to identify perceived strengths, barriers, and improvement priorities related to indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and spatial design. Phase II employed a Space-Centered Behavioral and Environmental Mapping (SC-BEM) protocol over four weeks, generating 272 valid zone-level observations capturing occupancy, activity type, seat utilization, functional alignment, and perceived environmental conditions. The results indicate that workplace use was concentrated in reservable, enclosed, and technology-supported spaces, whereas many open seating areas remained underutilized. Observed behaviors were primarily associated with collaborative and communal activities, with comparatively fewer focused individual activities, suggesting that the WorkHub functioned predominantly as a hub for interaction. Although acoustics and thermal comfort emerged as consistent experiential constraints, observer-rated IEQ did not significantly predict occupancy. Interpreted through an affordance-based lens, these findings suggest that space use was shaped more strongly by the clarity and usability of spatial affordances than by environmental quality alone.