3M Building 275
St. Paul, Minnesota3M needed to improve opportunities for spontaneous interaction and communication across organizational boundaries by consolidating the entire healthcare sector. HGA's designs for 3M met their goals of improving opportunities for spontaneous interaction and communication across organizational boundaries and providing a flexible workplace to accommodate staff relocation. The researchers in two existing laboratory buildings are brought together with the divisional management and marketing groups in this new office complex that includes a shared conference center, library, employee store and cafeteria overlooking a nature preserve on the company's suburban campus. Divisions and departments were carefully positioned and graphically detailed to provide an identifiable space within a large 50,000 square foot floor plate building. Impromptu meeting areas and vertical circulation patterns were designed to encourage spontaneous interaction among the 2,500 research, marketing, and management staff. To provide flexibility and accommodate technological changes, an access floor solution and a modular design were created that included telephone, computer, and electrical service.