HON HQ - Office Insight

8/7/2019 HON HQ - Office Insight

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GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS12.14.09

Business savvy is becoming an important subject inthe A&D community, even if for some it only means

nding a job or re-thinking a career. Out-of-work de-sign professionals are encouraged to beef up theircredentials, learn BIM, etc.

This advice is, hopefully, a projection of what A&Drms are telling themselves. But useful business

savvy has to go much deeper than developing skill-sets. What is required is the development of new atti-tudes and perspectives that will distinguish designersand design rms from other professionals. That willrequire a realization that, for the most part, becominga little more inventive or creative in traditional designskills will not do the trick. A 10-25% improvement

in this area may well be noticeable to designers andtheir colleagues and maybe the magazines whichthey hope will publish their projects but most clientswill not notice the differences and, even if they do,these differences will probably not be deemed mate-rial. Most people cannot tell the difference betweengood design and great design, except that a gooddeal of the population will nd great design repug-nant. (See the San Francisco Federal Building byThom Ma ne and Morphosis.)

The task ahead in these dif cult times (and thoseto come), therefore, may not have the curb appealthat invites designers to explore, but once a foothold

is established, most design professionals will seethe points of interest and the challenge of develop-ing new business perspectives. My rst suggestionis to understand that the rst, and perhaps the only,objective of a business is to create a customer. To dothis, one must understand the interests, concernsand values of your clients. While there is much talkabout educating the public about design, in its aes-thetic sense, that is pretty much a dead end. Not all,but most of your clients will be pretty much left-braintypes, both by natural inclination and experience, andtrying to get them to see the world as a designer doesis pretty much a triumph of hope over experience,and it certainly is not going to happen during a proj-

ect pitch. You might as well try teaching them to sing.(This is not to say that clients and their employees willnot be able to appreciate the work, when completed.Anyone can enjoy good music.)

Sadly, architects and designers will have to spendthe time and effort learning their clients language,and like any other language, it takes a lot of workand effort. But we do have some suggestions.

Read The Wall Street Journal or The Financial Times and your local Crains Business publica -tion, every business day. The value of this cannotbe over-emphasized. Just out of law school, I wasinvited to a partners luncheon to become ac-

Return To Muscatineby Brad Powell

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12.14.09 GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS PAGE 2 OF 8

companiesquainted with members of the rm atwhich I worked; it was a big one. Theconversations were Greek to me . The Wall Street Journal was the RosettaStone, since that days news was whateveryone was talking about. (I startedreading the WSJ; well, not the wholething.)The HON Compan

Another valuable resource can besummed up in a single word, some-thing familiar to most: HON, The HNI companies, generally, but The HON

Compan is a great place to start. Again,I pass along my experience with HON.I have learned many things from manycontract furniture manufacturers, but Ihave learned more about business andmarkets from HON. Also, the degree towhich the HNI companies are willing totalk about their business methods, atleast generally, is extraordinary.

Since HON is still the big revenueengine of HNI, the second largestU.S. contract furniture manufacturer, Iusually assume that most commercial

designers are familiar with the com-pany. But, recently, I spoke to an ex-perienced and well-regarded architect/ interior designer who had never heardof HON. Amazing! Thats sort of like aJaguar designer never having heardof Toyota (or maybe thats been theproblem). Of course, many architectsand designers are aware of HON, butmay not be much interested in thecompany or its products. At the sametime, HON historically hasnt expendedmany resources to enable designers to

become familiar with it. I think thatsgoing to change.

Designers frequently tell me thatthey could create a great space with afew buckets of paint and some orangecrates. Having seen several of themat work, I tend to accept that notion,at least guratively. A logical follow-upquestion to the design community is:Assuming that you could obtain goodquality furniture, how would you like tosee a greater percentage of a projectbudget allocated to design services bydiminishing the amount allocated tofurniture? Then again, how would youlike to see your revenues increase by50 - 100% by servicing the hundredsof thousands of businesses that havenever seen a designers touch? (SeeWhat Interior Design? , this issue.)

Thinking about these questions ledme to wonder, What would a well-de-signed space using only HON furniturelook like? I soon found out. HON com-pleted the renovation of its headquar-ters in Muscatine earlier this year andinvited me to take a look. I loved it.

Probably as many people wouldlaugh at the idea of going to Muscatine,IA, as they would at the notion of buy-ing HON products. That would be a bigmistake. True, its not an easy trip: yto Detroit, Dallas or Chicago (well, bet-ter not Chicago), then to the Quad Cit-ies, which interestingly consists of vecities, one of which is Rock Island (youknow, of Rock Island Line, by Lead-belly, The Weavers and Johnny Cash).ENTRANCE FOyER


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companiesNonetheless, its a surprisingly painlessexperience and, upon your arrival, yourhosts are gracious and welcoming andyou learn a great deal, not just aboutHON, but about how the people therethink and why they do what they do.

Frankly, I didnt know what to expect

of the headquarters renovation, evenwondering who the company employedto do the design. I need not have wor-ried. The renovation process was trulya collaborative effort between HONand The SmithGroup [Chicago], saidTim Smith , vice president of work-

place environment for The HON Com-pany. Our team at HON created thevision and ideation for the new facility;and we had a valuable partner in TheSmithGroup to assist with the creativeprocess and to turn our ideas into real-ity. The result is a genuine showplacefor the HON brand it celebrates HONas a leader in the industry and willleave guests with a strong understand-ing of who The HON Company is andof our vision for the future.

Angie Lee has worked with HON

since she and her former rm, AREA,were asked to help with the HONChicago showroom design a few yearsago. Since then, Ms. Lee joined theSmithGroups Chicago of ce andis now vice president and nationaldirector of Workplace Design. She alsorecruited Rod Vickro from Perkins +Will, who I previously met as part of the P+W team working on the Haworthheadquarters renovation. This pairwas joined by Aileen Sancho to formthe HON headquarters design team.When asked about HON products, Mr.Vickroy said, Michelle O ama cometo mind: She is often seen in someincredible gowns, but for day-to-day,she prefers J Crew. HON products give95% of what is provided by more ex-pensive brands, while giving designersmore of the budget to design with.

Well, for all of its striking appearance,the new HON headquarters is de nitelymore J Crew than Naeem Khan , andlike HON, suitable for work. Our visionthroughout the renovation process,said Mr. Smith, was to transform ourfacility into a collaborative and vibrantworkplace that demonstrates the es-sence of the HON brand.

While originally contemplating anew building, HON was able to saveconsiderable amounts by reworking itsexisting headquarters. This turned outto be a good nancial decision, andpushed the project in a great direction.The old headquarters was just that, old in fact 100 years old. The 68,000TIM SMITH AND SHELLy DE SILVA IN THE COMMONS

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companiessq.ft. facility is a combination of fourbuildings, each with its own identityand some very striking infrastructure.Strenuous efforts stripping decades of paint and sheetrock turned up half amile of brick wall, huge timbers (15x 22) and I-beams large enough tosupport a roadway.

Care was taken to show the beautyof the original structure with exposedbrick, loft-style beams and naturalwood and enhance its splendor withmodern amenities like skylights, con-

crete oors, and more, said Ms. Lee.Visitors and members alike immedi-ately understand what is special andunique about HON. Striking, bold,con dent, simple this is the essence

of HON.Well put, but I would add: open,genuine, authentic, fundamentally sol-id, very well built, and nally, always,always getting better. Rapid continuousimprovement is a way of life at HON,and its very good at it.

The renovation project took 18months. The structure was ownedoriginally by Huttig Manufacturing , awindow sash manufacturer. Specialattention was paid to revealing andsustaining the heritage of the existing

historic building. Even some of the oldHuttig Signage is visible in parts of thebuilding. The sharp contrast betweenthe rich, exposed, natural materialsand the new modern, white, contem-

porary interior construction gives anat-home feeling, but without leaving aheavy, dark impression.

The result is a genuine showplacefor the HON brand, said Mr. Smith,and it is our vision for the future. Inthe short time since the renovation wascompleted, we have hosted more than400 dealer sales representatives, andenjoyed visits from our largest custom-ers. In every case, they expressedtheir con dence and encouragement toour commitment to building the HON

brand and growing our business.The entrance sets the tone. The

clean and light- lled foyer with soar-ing, re ective white glass and a largewhite extruded HON logo contrasts

PRESERVED SIGNAGE

FOyER

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companiessharply with the old exterior and theadjacent chocolate brick wall withclimbing greenery. I love the idea of plants indoors, and the wire trellis withclimbing ivy is an idea I might steal formy home.

The nearby area HON calls its Com- mons is built around the glass-walledboardroom and is in the form a caf,with an area for serving and anotherfor sitting. With its waste-not-want-notmentality, HON created the basesfor its tables in the Commons from

removed structural bracing materials.The result is a comfortable and invitingspace where members and guests canrelax and discuss matters at hand.

The Commons area has alreadyproven to be an extremely valuable

addition to the HON facility, said thecompany. Members take advantageof the open, collaborative space fora wide variety of meetings, as well asvisiting with dealers attending HONUniversity.

In addition to the boardroom, theCommons is also next to a trainingfacility, teleconference rooms, twoenclosed conference rooms and theshowroom, which displays the fullrange of HON products.

One aspect of the renovation that I

particularly liked was the light, air andextra space given to the stairways. Toooften stairways are either grand, whichis great, or dungeon-like passageswhose area was, seemingly with muchresentment, stolen from the rest of the

space. But there is a more hospitableand functional role for the stairway. Agreat example of this is the San Fran-cisco Federal Building, as reportedin the July 2007 issue of Contract magazine. There, we saw that a stairpassage can be inviting, a place pro -viding for needed exercise and chanceencounters. The HON renovation doesnot quite pull this off, but its effort inthat direction, especially taking intoaccount the aged architecture, wasnicely done.

A Great Place to WorkThe new HON headquarters of ce

space illustrates how the effectivecombination of architecture, ef cientprogramming and HON furniture cancreate a great workplace. The wood

THE COMMONS

THE COMMONS

THE COMMONS


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companiesunderside of the oor decks and theinterior brick walls were sandblastedwith walnut shells to avoid damageand left exposed to create a loft-likeatmosphere.

A large skylight on the roof en-ables natural light to ow through theinterior light wells in lower oors downto the rst oor. The work place isan example of universal planning,said Mr. Vickroy. It has two standardcon gurations private of ces andopen workstations each of which

has a uniform size. Private of ces arelocated in the center of the building,allowing more natural light to reach theentire facility, and private of ce frontsof demountable glass partitions addto the light ow and facilitate visualcommunication with members in openworkstations, as well as providingsound privacy.

Each HON member was asked fortheir preference of a seated or stand-ing height workstation. Nearly one-third of members chose a standingheight station.Certifably Green

Sustainability was a top priority,and the headquarters was designedto achieve LEED CI Silver certi cation.Near the entrance, a full-wall muralgraphically represents HONs envi-

ronmental journey. (See of ceinsight4.7.08) As previously noted, HON start-ed down this path long before LEEDpoints were invented. Over 60 yearsago, HON crafted one of its rst prod-uct lines out of recycled scrap metal.More recently, it invented Nature Core ,which is used in HONs Initiate panelsystem. Nature Core is made from anatural ber, kenaf , which is annuallyrenewable and low-emitting. No formal-dehyde is added, and we only wish thatit had been used to make the trailers

FEMA provided to those displaced byHurricane Katrina since it emits noformaldehyde. Many who have seenNature Core are attracted to its naturallook. HON used the material, on edge,to construct an attractive wall adjacentto its Commons area.

Seventy- ve percent of the construc-tion demolition materials were recycledand reused. Replaced appliances,cabinetry and furniture were donatedto local non-pro t organizations, in-cluding some which were affected bythe recent Iowa oods. All of the HVACand lighting systems feature state-of-the-art, energy-ef cient bene ts. Thelighting systems alone are expectedto be 40% more energy ef cient thanprevious systems.

This is not a product piece, but I

did get a glimpse of HONs plans forNeoCon 2010. It looks like its newproducts will be as impressive as thenew headquarters space.And Then ...

This piece is about the HONheadquarters building, but I want tomention that, upon arrival in Musca-tine, Don Mead , president of Gunlocke,picked me up at my hotel and wewent to The button Factor for dinner,meeting Jerr Dettmer, president of The HON Company, and Jeff Lorenger,

president of Allsteel. Muscatine, youmay know, was once the pearl-buttoncapitol of the world, situated as it is ona bend of the Mississippi River. The Button Factory , as its name indicates,is a reclaimed factory with plenty of wood and good food.

In the morning, Kris yates and MarPalmer of Allsteel picked me up forbreakfast really early followed by afactory tour at Allsteel. My tour guideswere Dennis Edwards , OperationsRCI Manager, and Dan Frere , ProjectManager. Mr. Frere is part of the $12million Team, whose job it is to save$1million/month in factory operations.Its amazing what a little attention to de-tail can produce, starting with avoiding$60,000/month in land ll dumping fees.(And yes, the factory was very busy.)

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companies

I have had at least three factory visitswith HNI companies, and have gaineda great deal from each of them. It did

occur to me that factory tours couldbe enhanced by pre-tour preparation

informing visitors what they can expectto get out of the tour. Admittedly, Inever found such preparation neces-

sary with the HNI company tours sincetheir focus is on process and design,

rather than speci c factory operations.Next, I had a short visit with Jan

Johnson , Allsteels A&D and Work-

place guru; well bring you more onthat later. Then Stan Askren , HNI

SKyLIGHT AND I-bEAM FLOOR

PRIVATE OFFICES

PRIVATE OFFICES: DEMOUNTAbLE GLASS WALL


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companiesCEO, president and chairman, spentover an hour with me chatting aboutthe industry, the economy and the HNIcompanies. This was not an interview,just an exchange of thoughts. His gra-ciousness and interest is indicative of the culture of the HNI companies; Mr.Askrens predecessor, Jack Michaels ,was the same way.

I cant help but noting in passingthat Mr. Askren, who took over the topspot in 2003, just at the end of theprevious recession, has been riding a

tiger during the present recession. HNIis in two business sectors: commercialfurniture and hearth. Since the homemarket was one of the major forcesthat pulled the plug on the pre-reces-sion economy, HNIs businesses havebeen hit hard on both fronts. Yet, the

companys rebound from the effectsof the recession are nothing short of astounding.

Sales, of course, are down, butrevenues for the 3 rd quarter are only4.1% less than the same period in theprior year. The cash position at theend of the 3 rd quarter 2009 was almostdouble that at the end of the prior-year3 rd quarter, and pro tability in the fur-niture area was in double digits (10%GAAP; 11.1 Non-GAAP), exceptionalin these economic times and surpass-

ing even Knoll, the regular pro tabilityleader in the contract furniture sector.(Making us wonder what gures arebeing considered by those who saythat there is not enough pro t for de-signers fees in the mid-market.) HNIsstock has also lost less of its value as

of last Friday in the past 12 monthsthan any other of the contract furnituremanufacturers.

Success in any eld is achieved,in part, by emulating those who haveachieved it. All of us, architects anddesigners included, who desire suc-cess in our businesses can learn muchfrom the HNI companies.

Websites are: hnicorp.com , allsteel -of ce.co m , gunlocke.co m, hon.com

2009 of cesite, inc.publisher of of ceinsight24 East Avenue (#1299)New Canaan, CT 06840203.966.5008 brad@of ceinsight.co mwww.of ceinsight.co m

ENVIRONMENTAL PANEL NATURE CORE
http://www.hnicorp.com/http://www.allsteeloffice.com/http://www.allsteeloffice.com/http://www.allsteeloffice.com/http://www.allsteeloffice.com/http://www.gunlocke.com/http://www.gunlocke.com/http://www.hon.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.officeinsight.com/http://www.officeinsight.com/http://www.officeinsight.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.hon.com/http://www.gunlocke.com/http://www.allsteeloffice.com/http://www.allsteeloffice.com/http://www.hnicorp.com/

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