Concentrating on collaboration and open workstation panel designs is
important during the office furniture design process. We feel that it is
important during the design process that workstations be designed to allow
contact and communication between coworkers as a function of their work. This is
accomplished by the following:

Panel Heights: Varying the panel heights allow different levels of
privacy. By lowering panel heights at strategic locations in the workstation or
in groupings of workstations allows employees to see and communicate with each
other as well as providing an open environment in the office area. Adding glass
panels in the workstations will further allow visual contact as well as to allow
an open feeling in the workstation area. Lowering or adding glass to panels the
are near windows would also allow natural light to travel deeper in
the office space.

An excellent product that has panels that would allow this type of
design is

Global Evolve Office Furniture .

Workstation Layouts: The component design of
panel systems office furniture is in the modularity, which allows workstations
or grouping of workstations to be designed both around the tasks and equipment
of the employee or to be able to design around groups or groupings of
workstations. Designing a teaming concept in the workstation design would
facilitate more employee communication. Creating a bullpen environments
and incorporating teaming worksurfaces between stations would allow informal
meeting areas, thus further allowing a more efficient workspace design.

There are great examples of open workstation design in the

Global Evolve Office Furniture online brochure.

Good information of the Evolve office furniture product. We have used the open office furniture design in many projects that I have worked on. The open concept does help organizations communicate with each other and results in better interior design. Older cubical designs of the past do not work well in today's collaborative work environments. I like the 54"panel heights that allow seating privacy, but opening up the workstation environment. As you mentioned, the use of glass in the open office environment also gives the open look along with a little sound control.