By Joe Boomgaard | MiBiz
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GRAND RAPIDS — The best place for employees to work can change depending on the time of day or the type of work that needs to get accomplished.

Steelcase’s new WorkCafe demonstrates how the manufacturer’s products can be applied in a mixed dining and work environment. Cafes can serve as work areas too, said Nancy Hickey, Steelcase’s SVP and chief administrative officer. PHOTO: JOE BOOMGAARD

Steelcase Inc. recognized the need for its employees to have a range of work spaces at its corporate headquarters building when it set out to renovate its main dining space. While the space certainly remains an eatery, it also serves as a meeting space and as a showroom for the company’s various product lines, ranging from casual to formal office environments.

“We wanted to spark a change and take a modern view of work,” said Nancy Hickey, SVP and chief administrative officer for Steelcase Inc., during a tour with MiBiz. “The best place to work can be different from 4 o’clock to 10 o’clock. We want employees to find the best place to do whatever they’re doing during the day.”

The former cafeteria space at Steelcase was tucked away in a maze of hallways on the lower floor of the company’s headquarters. The office furniture manufacturer left the space mostly untouched since the facility opened in 1983.

Hickey said the old space functioned solely as an employee cafeteria, but the renovation and new design direction allows the company to have a working showroom of its products for customers.

Before the project, visitors rarely would have seen the company’s cafeteria. Now, after a nine-month construction project, it’s a main stop on any client tour, Hickey said.

Hickey would not disclose the cost of the project, but said it was a key feature of Steelcase’s broader Connect 12 program, a three-year plan to integrate employees from the Corporate Development Center — known as the “Pyramid” — into the headquarters building by 2012, the company’s 100th anniversary.

“As we consolidate employees to this campus, we wanted at least one place that would be available to 1,300 employees,” Hickey said. “Everyone can get the benefit of this.”

The new space connects to the main entryway of the headquarters building with a matte-finish walnut stairway and white honeycomb ceiling styling feature. A casual lounge setting sits just off the stairway, where a concierge is available to help employees reserve rooms or schedule various events. More casual space is available in the “living room” area, which the company stocks with periodicals and books.

Global visitors and employees can also check out iPads with subscriptions to various world newspapers so they can stay connected to home, Hickey said. The company wanted its nearby “global video wall” — with headlines about Steelcase operations and employees around the world, as well as a feed of the company’s social media stream — to help employees “feel all part of the same family,” she said.

In a nod to Steelcase’s history of innovations, an “art forest” features angled stainless steel poles etched with all the company’s patent numbers, Hickey said.

Starbucks-trained baristas staff a coffee and tea stand. A nearby display cooking area allows employees and visitors to interact with cooks to get food prepared to order. Another space allows employees to prepare food they bring from home.

All the personal choices — as well as an informational wall with various food facts — are intended to support employees’ healthy food choices using as much local food as possible. The effort fits with the company’s participation in a wellness program through Mayo Clinic.

“We want to be intentional and subtle,” Hickey said about encouraging employees’ healthy eating habits. “We don’t want to mandate it, but (the space) helps make the choices easier.”

The overall WorkCafe space can fit 263 people and features a 90-space common dining area. The WorkCafe features five meeting rooms, three with tele-presence units. An outdoor terrace with a fire pit has seating for 68 people.

Hickey said the renovated space was an instant hit with employees, who treat it like a “new home” and who have said it helps them be better connected to the company’s brand and messaging.

“We wanted to add more collaborative and casual spaces so people could work away from where they’re normally assigned to,” she said.

Moreover, the space provides customers a firsthand look at how cafeteria spaces can serve more than one purpose.

“Many of them have not thought of a café as a work area,” she said.

Local firms involved in project

Frank Stanek, director of operations at Owen-Ames-Kimball Co., the construction manager for the project, said the tight timeline, the high visibility of the project and the many “unique design elements” forced his crews to “take great care.”

The level of detail Steelcase wanted in the WorkCafe and the use of special finishes necessitated O-A-K work closely with subcontractors on preplanning the project. Even then, a shortage of a main surface material in the servery posed a challenge.

“We tracked down the last pieces of it in the country and had them shipped here,” Stanek said.

Steelcase tapped Los Angeles-based Shimoda Design Group for the overall project design. Progressive AE handled engineering duties for the renovation project, including designing the lighting and HVAC systems and engineering the structural planning behind cutting a hole in the building’s main floor. However, most of the company’s footprint was hidden in the mechanical and structural elements, said John VanHouten, senior project manager and architect.

“On the mechanical and electrical end, because of the precision needed and the aesthetic appeal, this was a heavily coordinated project,” VanHouten said. “We designed the engineering systems behind the scenes. This was not your typical architectural design piece. We supported everything people don’t see but do experience.”