We helped a relocation company move themselves and designed a beautiful, ergonomic new office from carpet to art.
NRI Relocation is a 30-year-old company in Buffalo Grove, a Chicago suburb. They provide relocation services to corporations who are moving employees across the country. After many years in their previous office, which had gotten quite tired, they were ready for a new home that reflects the quality of their work, their own personalities and the value that they place on their 20+ employees. Great ergonomics for everyone and a beautiful space that they would enjoy being in were key to them. The project was spearheaded by the CEO and VP of Human Resources, Susan Bender and Stacy Seeger. They came to Applied Ergonomics through their tenant rep commercial broker, John Pikarsky of JD Partners, with whom we’ve worked for 2 decades. We spent an afternoon touring showrooms at and near the Merchandise Mart and they fell in love with a product line for their workstations called Up from Tayco, and a private office line called Artemis from Krug, two of our favorite Canadian manufacturers. They had owned Krug wood furniture previously, so they knew the quality to expect.
NRI chose not to engage a separate interior design firm, and we were asked to do all the design work. We started, as we always do, with field measurements to verify the accuracy of the drawings and corrected the CAD file as needed. We then developed “typicals”, different workstation and private office designs, to present to the clients for their review. Workstations and private offices included our ErgoAdvantage electric height adjustable desks with CPU holders and monitor arms. Once these were approved, we were able to develop floor plans with the actual products to be used, drawn to scale, for further client review and approval. We created a menu of options for task seating, guest chairs, conference room seating, collaborative lounge seating and lunchroom furniture. After bringing in multiple task chairs for the whole staff to evaluate and rate, we settled on the Keilhauer Sguig for all desk chairs. We specified JSI Sosa for guest chairs, Arcadia Intima for collaboration, David Edward Aurora in the lobby and Allseating Tuck in the lunchroom. We simultaneously started developing the finish plan, choosing carpet tiles from Shaw and J&J, vinyl plank from Tandus, paints, workstation fabrics and laminates, collaborative seating fabrics, private office wood stain and seating fabrics. We also developed and provided an art program together with the clients that makes the space look complete and elegant, adding color and cohesion to the office.
We were onsite multiple times during construction, working with the GC’s electrician to ensure that power and data were placed where they need to be to work with our furniture plan and that walls were set per the documents. We coordinated with the property’s engineering staff regarding carpet and furniture installation hours. Unfortunately, the GC underperformed on this job and we advocated for the client whenever possible, serving as a communication conduit. During our own furniture installation, we were onsite periodically to help resolve questions, ensure that product was being installed as designed, communicate with factories about issues and with the client about status. This is not a widespread practice in our field, and one of the things that has set us apart from the beginning. These are not decisions and communications that should be left to a furniture installer, in our opinion.
We’re very proud of our work for NRI Relocation and they love their office. They have referred other clients to us since they moved.
