Date: 06/10/07
Source: Wisconsin State Journal
Author: Marv Balousek

Local Architects Walk The Walk In Environment Friendly Design

Hilldale Row condominiums and terminal renovation at the Dane County Regional Airport are among the major projects in 46 states completed by Tri-North Builders of Fitchburg.
When it was time to build the company's corporate headquarters, president and chief executive Tom Thayer wanted it to showcase the 26-year-old construction company's strengths with energy-efficient and environmentally sound features.

"We didn't want to just talk the talk," he said. "It allows us in a real-world sense to show that here's the premium to go with this product, but here's the payback."

Tri-North is seeking gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status from the U.S. Green Building Council for its $8 million, 58,000-square-foot corporate headquarters completed last fall in Fitchburg's research park along Fish Hatchery Road.

When a construction company like Tri-North or a design-build firm like Marshall Erdman and Associates plans its own offices, it becomes more than just another construction project

For these companies, a corporate headquarters is an opportunity to build a three-dimensional business card and highlight design and construction skills for potential clients and the public.

LEED status is the goal of many of Madison's architectural and construction firms for corporate headquarters buildings.

Marshall Erdman and Associates expects its $20 million, 130,000-square-foot corporate headquarters on Madison's West Side to meet gold LEED standards when it is completed this fall.

Chief executive Scott Ransom said the building will help define the company started by architect and builder Marshall Erdman more than a half century ago.

"We set out to create an environment where all of our employees really look forward to coming to work each day and are successful in delivery of innovative and high-quality services to our clients," Ransom said.

The Tri-North and Erdman buildings are the latest in a series of Madison area corporate buildings that help define their companies.

When Affiliated Engineers' 52,000-square-foot corporate headquarters at 5802 Research Park Blvd. was built in 2004, it became the first Madison office building and one of three in the state awarded LEED status. The building features prominent use of day lighting, renewable energy and 75 percent of the construction waste was recycled or reused.

Built in 1998, the Planning Design Build architectural firm's building at 901 Deming Way features extensive use of natural light and other energy-saving features. It was the first multi-tenant office building in the Midwest to receive LEED certification for an existing building.

Exposed beams and concrete columns with pencil marks left on them highlight the construction elements of the $5 million J.H. Findorff & Son headquarters built five years ago at 300 S. Bedford St. The building also features high ceilings, natural light and lake views.

When Stevens Construction Corp. built a three-story, 50,000-square-foot building for its headquarters in 2004, the company made an effort not to hide the craftsmanship that is typically obscured.

The $6 million facility in the American Center business park at the intersection of Highway 151 and Interstate 39-90-94, includes exposed stainless-steel turnbuckles at the top of the three-story atrium and a suspended structural-steel staircase with aircraft cable railings.

"It's the stuff that craftsmen would take pleasure in," said Brad Zellner, president and chief executive officer of the company, founded in 1952. "It's a great environment to do work in."

The concept of a visually stunning corporate headquarters isn't new. Strang Architects leased space with a tiny lobby and nondescript entrance before building its offices at 6411 Mineral Point Road in the late 1980s.

Strang's headquarters features a two-story open lobby leading up to a second-floor balcony and wide expanses of south-facing glass with a view of the woods.

"It was important to us at the time because it's a lot of name recognition," said president David Hyzer. "We wanted to show our clients that we were different and there was a reason to use an architect."

Hyzer said if Strang was building its headquarters today, it would incorporate more technological features such as flat screens.

LEED certification wasn't available when the Flad & Associates headquarters building at 644 Science Drive was constructed a decade ago, but the architectural firm's building was designed to take advantage of natural light with a north window wall and open areas.

Roof monitors at Flad's building track the weather and energy usage and those results are compared with data from similar monitors at the newer Affiliated Engineers building a few hundred feet away.

When Flad's building was completed, chief executive Bill Bula said individual work stations were more important than team areas and the building's open design helped dissolve the hierarchy that existed between people who had direct contact with clients, architects, engineers and management.

As part of recent remodeling, Bula said a traditional library has been replaced in the central part of the building with team work spaces so that groups of employees working on projects now greet visitors.

"It promotes the idea that we're part of an interactive culture and a design community," he said. "Buildings should respond to the dynamics of organizations as they change."

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