Side of Design

Reused, Reimagined, Reconnected: How Loucks Created a Greener, People-First Office

• BWBR • Episode 56

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When the lease on their office space expired, Minneapolis-based engineering firm Loucks sought out a team that could help create their ideal work environment in a new location. With help from BWBR, furniture dealership Henricksen, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, and some extraordinary luck, Loucks transformed an already promising space into a workplace that supports their culture, enhances well-being, and aligns with today’s technology needs—all while keeping existing furniture out of landfills.


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Matt Gerstner:

This is Side of Design from BWBR, a podcast discussing all aspects of design with knowledge leaders from every part of the industry. Hello and welcome to Side of Design from BWBR. I'm your host, matt Gerstner. One of the perpetual challenges our designers face is how to help clients create environments that support their culture, enhance well-being and align with new ways of working, while also minimizing waste and incorporating sustainable design principles. On this episode, we'll be exploring this intersection of design and sustainability through the lens of a workplace project that found the design sweet spot that helped the client save money, reduce waste and meet their space goals. Joining us today are Principal Engineer John Donovan from Lauks, principal and director of landscape architecture Nathan Eckhoff, also of Laux A&D, market manager Akaria Chorley from Henriksen and senior architect Kelly Heatley from BWBR. Thank you all for joining me today. It's great to have you here. Thanks for having us.

Kelly Heatly:

Thank you.

Matt Gerstner:

So I'd just like to start. If we just go around the table today and have everybody introduce themselves to our listeners, nate, why don't you get us kicked off?

Nate Eckhoff:

Sure, yeah. So I'm Nate Ekoff, a landscape architect at Laux and one of the principals there.

Jon Donovan:

Hi, I'm John Donham. I'm also a principal civil engineer at Laux.

Ikaria Chorley:

Hi, I'm Akaria Chorley. I'm the A&D market manager at Henriksen here in Minneapolis.

Kelly Heatly:

And I'm Kelly Heatley. I'm a senior architect with BWBR.

Matt Gerstner:

Again, thank you all for joining me today. This is going to be a great conversation. So, john and Nate, can you talk us through the specific project that brought everybody here together?

Jon Donovan:

Sure, I'll jump in. So our lease in our existing building was up about a year and a half ago. So we started to search for a new space or updates to our existing space about a year before the lease was up. So we brought on Cushman Wakefield to help us with the lease negotiations finding a new space. And then we brought on BWBR, who brought Hendrickson on to help us with the interior tenant improvements.

Matt Gerstner:

So, thinking about the project and the team you brought together, why don't you tell us why you needed a new space? What was going on?

Jon Donovan:

So our existing space was pretty dated and didn't really serve our needs for how we worked, kind of after the COVID period. So you know the way we work and the way most of the architectural engineering firms work these days are teams meetings, zoom meetings, and our space at the old building didn't have the breakout rooms, the focus rooms, conference rooms. So when we started looking for a space number one we wanted to look for a building with a little bit more amenities, met a space that we could build out and provide those focus rooms, places where people can go to take calls, to run calls, and the new space had all those things and things that we wanted to incorporate.

Matt Gerstner:

Them were pretty easy to do, so thinking about all the scope, the goals, everything that we just kind of mentioned there. What were the constraints, you know, like budget time, that kind of thing. What kind of constraints did you have around this project?

Nate Eckhoff:

Started with kind of the location of where we wanted to be. Kind of finding the right building, you know, with within proximity of where our previous office was, was a constraint for sure, and then obviously kind of budget was a constraint for us as well. So, working within those constraints, I think the BWBR team, kelly and her team, really helped us kind of work through a lot of different options within the space that we found. And really actually the office space that we found at Jet 55 was really nice because it had been recently renovated I think right before COVID they did a renovation there so brought in a lot of new furniture for that actually, and the space was already pretty open and kind of available for us to do what we wanted. So that was nice for sure because we were able to kind of be pretty creative with what was there.

Nate Eckhoff:

So, as far as the scope of the project, we outlined a few specific goals, I guess, like John just kind of alluded to there, and one of our biggest ones was to kind of tell the story of who Laux is and what we do and how we work, kind of a thing. So we really needed to incorporate a space that was flexible and a place where we could design things together, because we're multidisciplinary. We got, you know, civil engineering, landscape architecture and survey and we really tackled projects together and we needed those flexible spaces and spaces together to do that. So that was one of our biggest goals.

Jon Donovan:

Yeah.

Nate Eckhoff:

And the jet 55 space that we found definitely allowed us to do that Fantastic.

Matt Gerstner:

Fantastic. So when we're when we're thinking about everything that was there already, what were you able to reuse or repurpose in the space? How does that fall into this?

Kelly Heatly:

From a design side. I think one of the benefits that I see there's kind of your goal of wanting to work together and be collaborative. One of the other things we talked about was we just went through the height of covid. You've got employees coming back to the office and there's sort of this tension or battle of like, why am I here? And so by the space that you guys selected for your office, one of the benefits was it was fairly well set up for how you work. You. You had workstations in place. There was already conference areas, private offices. A lot of the focus got to be on creating the spaces where you come together and then also the spaces where people could work individually, like the focus rooms. So I think that was huge. You didn't have to spend a lot of resources on creating the workstation area or the day-to-day. You got to focus more on the fun spaces.

Matt Gerstner:

Yeah, that just seems super convenient and something that you don't run into every day when you're looking at moving into a new space or even even find finding any kind of space that's going to work for a particular company. That's fantastic.

Kelly Heatly:

Yeah, and it was cool. Their furniture was already like green. It fit in with laux branding and okay, I'll just jump in.

Matt Gerstner:

That doesn't happen.

Nate Eckhoff:

No, yeah it was definitely a big selling point of the space that we ended up moving into, for sure there's just a lot of little things, that everything lined up clearly and it was.

Ikaria Chorley:

It was destined to happen yeah, and I would say from a furniture perspective, we probably reused what 90 of the products that were in there, so that was really great. There was not a lot of stuff that had to go to the landfill, which is always our end goal. That's incredible. So it worked out pretty well.

Matt Gerstner:

Wow, wow. Again, I'm hearing a lot of things that just kind of lined up and fell into place.

Nate Eckhoff:

That's incredible lined up and fell into place. That's incredible, and one of our goals, too, was to create a lay, like we realigned, all the furniture that was already there to to work better for us and then also provide enough workstations for us to grow into Okay Over time. So we were, we did all that with a new furniture layout, and then we still had stuff left over, Cause I would say that furniture was untouched.

Ikaria Chorley:

Yeah, you know, I think and it was funny it was actually an existing client of Henrickson. So when we got brought onto the project you know you always get a little nervous touching existing furniture, especially if it's not your brand. But then when we found out that it was all steel, we knew right away that we'd be able to reconfigure it and add a couple of components to essentially make the layout that they were hoping for. Wow yeah.

Matt Gerstner:

Wow, this is a feel good episode. I like this. It seems like there's, you know, this is a case where we've got a lot of constraints that maximize creativity, but the constraints were actually all kind of natural for you. It like like what you had as constraints and what you were moving into really aligned well and made your final result even better. Can you kind of just talk a little bit more about that, about how you reconfigured things, how you were able to use what was there and pull it together?

Ikaria Chorley:

Yeah. So we obviously collaborated with BWBR on the layouts. Kelly's team really set us up with a space plan kind of the intent of the design and then my team went in and basically inventoried what we had. We had a list of the products that were already in the space because it was an existing client of ours, which made it a lot easier to kind of figure out how we can reconfigure this and what parts and pieces were all needed. So then once we got the space plan, we kind of just started plugging and playing all the parts and reconfigured it. It can get a little hairy and a little complicated, but that's kind of our job and we love getting into the details for that.

Jon Donovan:

I want to say that reuse of the existing furniture was a constraint because I think it was a plus, probably the tipping point for us to lease the space, but it allowed us to spend the money where we wanted to spend it right Right A work cafe and a collaboration area. So it allowed us to do some of the things that we really wanted to do to meet some of the goals that we set out to get a new space for our employees.

Matt Gerstner:

Yeah, that's fantastic. I mean, when you're looking at a space and you've got things that you can reuse, clearly, like you said, it's going to free up dollars, and those are dollars you might not have otherwise been able to use in those spaces. Kelly, can you talk about how some of those other spaces came into play then?

Kelly Heatly:

Yeah, just maybe painting a picture. First thing, the site when you walk in. We got to reuse the existing reception area. Like was already mentioned, the workstations were already mostly in place. It was sort of opening some stuff up and creating a little bit more collaboration area. There were already private offices in place, conference rooms, and so our focus got to be a lot more on creating a couple of focus rooms, for instances where employees are in the office and they need to take a call or be on a meeting, creating some quiet areas and then also focusing on the work cafe, which really became the focal point of where their teams come together. Both it could be in a professional collaboration type interaction or more of a social interaction. So it kind of became the place where they could tell the story of who they are and what makes them special or unique, versus just the office environment. So I thought that was super fun, just having an area where the office could come together and it's sort of the life of their office.

Nate Eckhoff:

Yeah, and that was definitely one of our goals too is to, you know, create a new office that reinforces and really encourages our culture, our culture at Laux. So definitely that work cafe certainly accomplishes that goal, uh, really nicely. So, yeah, spending all the money, not all the money, most of the money there really made sense.

Matt Gerstner:

I mean, it sounds like you've got, like you know, the new teaming space and the work cafe. So I'm hearing a culture that interacts, culture that enjoys working together and likes to be together.

Nate Eckhoff:

Yeah, we went from a space that had one conference room, which was not very big, to three larger well, two larger conference rooms, one smaller conference room, and they're booked all the time. So we're certainly getting together. And then we've got kind of a collaboration zone too that we utilize and kind of come together and design things there too. So, yep, it's, it's working the way that we were hoping it's good to hear.

Matt Gerstner:

Uh. So, kelly, what are you seeing and hearing from other clients regarding sustainability and reuse? Are we seeing more of that now?

Kelly Heatly:

I think there's a lot more interest in it. It's challenging because there tends to be a furniture maybe uglies out, quote unquote, or it kind of gets dated before it's not usable anymore. But I know a lot of dealers that we work with or manufacturers are working on how can we take parts and pieces and reuse them to build something new. I think there is a lot more push to try to reuse furniture just because it can be expensive, and so if you can reuse furniture, it often allows you to free up resources for other areas, and almost every client we work with there's some sort of budget constraint, so it just helps align dollars with goals of the project or what the priorities are, and maybe I can speak a little bit more to what you see manufacturers doing to help with the sustainability piece. Yeah, definitely.

Ikaria Chorley:

And I think too, just to avoid stuff going to the landfill, Right? You know that is so important Not being able to throw away hundreds and hundreds of panels that will just sit there, you know. But yeah, from a manufacturer standpoint. So Henriksen is partnered with Allsteel. They are part of the H&I family, so that includes Allsteelhan, hbf, hearth and Home some of those brands that you guys might recognize and I'm really proud of the initiatives All Steel is putting in place for sustainability. They take it very seriously. So by 2025, they are going to be moving to 100% recyclable packaging. So we have no styrofoam, nothing. Everything that these pieces come into will all be able to be recycled, cause I cannot tell you how many boxes show up when you are doing a furniture install. It's quite a bit, so that's a really good push. Um, they want to be transparent with all the materials that are going into their products, so that will all be listed on their website. Again, I think transparency is really important.

Ikaria Chorley:

They don't have PFAS in any of their products anymore, so yeah getting rid of a lot of those chemicals and stuff that are harmful.

Matt Gerstner:

That's fantastic to hear. I'll just say the episode that I just recorded was all about PFAS. Yeah, and what a nightmare. That is Right.

Ikaria Chorley:

Well, and especially with Minnesota banning it and a lot of the products here you know, that kind of sets up a new challenge for us. So all steel's already ahead of the. Are you guys wondering what pfas is?

Matt Gerstner:

yeah, let's, please, let's talk about pfas yeah it's a perfluoroalkaloid, something, I can't remember the last letter, um, anyways, it's basically a forever chemical, yeah, and it does not degrade in the environment. It doesn't go away and it's the stuff that keeps things water repellent, stain repellent. It's in Teflon in your pots and pans, it's in cleaning products and it's in us. Whether we choose to accept it or not, it's in us and it's been linked to all sorts of health problems.

Ikaria Chorley:

Yeah, so yeah, so Allsteel is kind of ahead of the game. I think they really are one of the leaders in sustainability for furniture, and I'm really proud to say that Hendrickson, too, is taking a stance on sustainability. We're in the process of finalizing our corporate sustainability report. You know, we're just always trying to push that needle and be better for the earth.

Matt Gerstner:

It's so good to hear, so I got to ask how's the space working, how's everybody enjoying it, what's the vibe?

Jon Donovan:

Yeah, I would say we're very happy with the space. People that go there seem to enjoy it from eight to five and even outside of those hours, you know we'll'll. We have a ping pong table in there. Now we have people that will gather after play darts ping pong, so it's a space people want to be in. Yeah, um, and we've even had people you know the layout that hendrickson bwr came up with for this work cafe almost functions really well for a kind of a family type setting. There's a big farm table in there, um, and we've had people use it for personal gatherings too, like Thanksgiving, christmas there, so it's something that we smile at, that feedback from our employees that have used it for things outside.

Jon Donovan:

It's nice that they want to come to the office after the 8 to 5 ends their workday ends.

Ikaria Chorley:

Well, again, I think that says a lot about your culture, absolutely.

Jon Donovan:

And it says a lot about the design of that space too. I think that says a lot about your culture, yeah, absolutely. And it says a lot about the design of that space too. Right, like the stuff that the furniture that these guys came up to lay out, that BWBR came up with it just really, it works really well.

Nate Eckhoff:

So I would just add too, from a like recruiting standpoint. You know that was definitely one of the goals of our project and it's nice having a space to be proud of to invite people in you know, clients and potential employees as well. So that's been a huge plus and we've been certainly have been adding people since we've been moved in there now. So that's wonderful. That's been a big, helpful tool.

Matt Gerstner:

It sounds like a successful project all around for everybody.

Kelly Heatly:

I would say so. I was just thinking I wonder if it makes sense to describe a little bit better what the work cafe even is. Yeah, the work cafe is kind of the place where you have light coming in. I would equate it sort of to having an open floor plan for, like at your house, where the kitchen is kind of the central hub, so it's their break room. It's open to the office area. It's a place where, um, like conversations can happen, people kind of cross paths. It could be an informal meeting area. You also have I forgot about the family style kind of table with a monitor, so it could be a meeting space. It could be a gathering space during lunch, and then you also have ping pong table, dartboard. You have a lot of fun things. Yeah, well, and I think it's great you have a lot of fun things yeah.

Ikaria Chorley:

Well and I think it's great. You guys give your employees choice too. You know, especially after COVID, not everyone sits at a desk and works anymore, so again that little tech table that we have right by the window, someone could go there and take a 30-minute call if they needed or go and do some heads down work there. So I think that really speaks again to your culture and who you guys are as a company giving your employees choice and thinking about their well-being. That's really awesome.

Matt Gerstner:

And the opportunity to come in after hours and use the space as a family, as an employee, but not for employee purposes. That's incredible.

Nate Eckhoff:

Yeah, and the value engineering pen kind of came out during our project a couple of times.

Matt Gerstner:

Always does right.

Nate Eckhoff:

Yeah, but we were hoping to include like an outdoor patio space which would be directly connected to this work cafe, so that would really go back to you know, helping tell the story of who Laux is and what we do. We're definitely, you know, designing spaces outdoors and connecting people to the landscape. Maybe in the future it's not quite done yet.

Ikaria Chorley:

Sounds like we're going to have a Phase 2 project.

Nate Eckhoff:

It could be a Phase 2 patio someday but the space is set up perfectly for that where that patio would be connected to the work cafe. That'd be incredible.

Matt Gerstner:

Is there anything we haven't touched on today?

Jon Donovan:

I guess I'll say just from an owner's perspective, we don't we're not in this role a lot. We don't deal with a lot of the TI improvement stuff. So I will just say, like BWBR Hendrickson's team, even Steiner, who did our general contracting, made it so easy for us to from start to finish. So I would just say huge props, huge thank yous to all the people that had a hand in making our space the way it is right now. From our perspective, it went great.

Ikaria Chorley:

So we love to hear that.

Jon Donovan:

Absolutely.

Ikaria Chorley:

I agree.

Kelly Heatly:

Also, you guys were not a typical client. Like you understand the design process too, so it was a lot of fun collaborating and like we speak the same language, we deal with the same things and it was a lot of fun we have four or five, six people in our office making the decisions.

Jon Donovan:

Nate and I were kind of fronting the project or leading the project. So when we talk about something like anything, we go oh, that's a great idea. But we got to take it back to our board and walk through this and right um and just the the collaboration back and forth on these spaces. You had a lot of cooks in the kitchen and the spaces tweak and pull and push and again, we can't say enough about how it turned out. It's so great.

Matt Gerstner:

Well, that's fantastic and, honestly, I think it's a great place to finish up the episode. So thank you all for joining me today. This has been a great conversation. It's fun to see when good people come together and an incredible project comes out successfully. Thank you all.

Ikaria Chorley:

Thank you, thank you.

Matt Gerstner:

This has been Side of Design from BWBR, brought to you without any paid advertisements or commercials. If you found value in what you've heard today, give us a like, leave us a comment or, better yet, share us with your network. You can also reach out to us if you'd like to share an idea for a show or start a discussion. Email us at sideofdesign at bwbrcom. Bye.

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