We helped a major design firm move their own headquarters into a gorgeous new 36,000 sf space, modeled on what we had designed for ourselves.
Chipman Design and Architecture is a powerhouse in the design field, with offices in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles and known for their work on behalf of clients like Chick-Fil-A, Shake Shack, Ulta and Tumi. Yet the firm is still very entrepreneurial, and when it was time for them to move their corporate headquarters, they contracted the job themselves and had no issue working with smaller resources to get the job done beautifully but cost-effectively. That started with the real estate broker with whom they worked, our long-time broker and friend John Pikarski of JD Partners. John brought us in, but we still had to bid the job and we were the underdogs. We were up against one of the largest and most aggressive dealers in the Chicago market, one they had worked with in the past.
Our scope of the project included 122 architect/designer workstations, 5 Principal hubs interspersed so managers are amongst their teams, task chairs and a training room. Most private office furniture, resource library and lobby furnishings were to be moved. So the crux of the job was the workstations. While most businesses have been able to shrink their real estate per person, designers and architects still need a lot of surface space to lay out materials and drawings. John Chipman, Chairman of the company and head of the move project (and one of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with), wanted his employees to be able to stand up and move while working, knowing that this has a positive impact on their health and productivity. That worked in our favor, because we were able to custom engineer our own ErgoAdvantage electric height adjustable bases for the oversized workstations the architects and designers need. Most height adjustable table bases can extend up to 72” in length. We built these for extended corner surfaces that are 101” long x 41” wide at one end and 29” at the other. The competition couldn’t get this done at any price, let alone close to ours.
We worked with our friends at Tayco for the Cosmo workstation panels and surfaces and used our OEM supplier for the metal filing. Tayco’s filing is laminate and wasn’t what we needed. Since Tayco no longer has a Chicago showroom, our office serves to highlight Tayco in Chicago. We hosted a large group of Chipman employees in our new showroom space and let them see just how beautiful and substantial the Cosmo panels are. They got to meet Tayco’s National Sales Manager, who flew in specifically for the presentation. They got to try our ErgoAdvantage electric height adjustable bases and experience how high they go and how smooth and quiet they are. They understood the practical importance of our Humanscale CPU holders. They loved it all, down to the fabric, laminates and paint colors our designer Mary had chosen.
The training room also highlighted our advantage. Our ErgoAdvantage line of training tables features a unique flip and nesting base for straight-on, high density storage which we used here. Because ErgoAdvantage is our own brand, it is priced substantially lower than comparable product from a major manufacturer. This also gives us design flexibility, and in this case we used 96” x 18” Tayco surfaces to match the workstation color. After sit-testing our favorites, the Allseating Tuck was selected for the chairs.
It turned out that our competition had bid the job with the lowest priced panel system they carry and couldn’t offer height adjustability in the large-size needed. They tried to win by coming in with a low price but simply couldn’t match us with real value. We hit numbers by being resourceful, not by skimping. And we won their respect and friendship by coming in on-time and on-budget.
