It depends.  I cite trading floors -- I used to build them in NYC before the open-plan office idea started catching on big in the Bay Area. As far as I can tell, most people implementing open plan don't realize what they're getting into: 

[![enter image description here][2]][2]
[2]: https://i.sstatic.net/1rZSO.jpg


The whole point of open plan is communications -- when Sally needs to get a piece of information to Bob 50 feet away, the fastest way for her to do that is to stand up and yell. Add hundreds of other sources like ordinary conversations, phone calls, and the always-on squawk boxes linking other floors worldwide by voice, and you have a continual roar. When something major happens somewhere in the world, you can hear it ripple through a trading floor, starting with the group(s) who are most immediately affected, spreading across the rest of the floor over the next few moments. This situational awareness is crucial. 

*If* you want to have an organization that is that much of an agile machine, and *if* everyone on the whole floor signs on to work in a high-energy sprint or hackathon environment ahead of time, then it can work wonders. Most open-plan offices I've seen in Silly Valley are instead expected to be as silent as libraries, and if any actual sound starts to emanate from one part of the floor, someone always pops up like a prairie dog to squelch it.

It's never going to work that way -- a silent open-plan floor is an oxymoron and a productivity killer.  If Jimmy starts tapping his fingers three desks over, everyone gets distracted.

By comparison, I used to go *to* the trading floor when I needed to hide and code -- the chaos of an unleashed open-plan environment is a sea of white noise, perfect for concentration, with plenty of ambient energy to keep you from drifting.