Designing for the Next 25 Years
A few years ago, Owens Corning realized its 20-year-old headquarters building was great - but it really wasn't great for the next 25 years. A cross-functional team met to discuss the future and establish the principles that would guide the eventual renovations and development of "the hub."
Those principles included collaboration, productivity and cost as well as leveraging the beautiful sight lines overlooking the Maumee River and downtown Toledo. And it was the creative collaboration between KI and the Owens Corning team that led to a highly energized, innovative space to bring people together to collaborate and help Owens Corning grow, especially from a global perspective.
"Some companies come in and want to talk to you and tell you their thought starters before they even understand what you want," said Deb Craig, Hines, Senior Construction Manager. "KI was so different. They really wanted to listen. They wanted to hear what we're doing now, what we need to change and what we like. They had so many creative ideas of how to get us from where we thought we wanted to be to where we really ended up."
The marquee conference room in the Hub features 33' of glass storefront providing beautiful views of the river. The wall framework was also used in a new way using Zintra® material in different colors and shape cutouts to help with wayfinding. KI also helped Owens Corning work with the curves of the Cesar Pelli-designed building as typical systems product would not work. Instead, KI found a way to solve that issue through the Infinity from KI process, co-creating workstations that support collaboration, organization and personalization.
"The entire design has created a new way to work," said Rick Avery, Owens Corning, Sourcing Director, Global Indirect Materials. "KI being part of this project was integral to helping us realize our vision of a new way to work."
