For Immediate Release: September 12, 2008
On-site Conference Centers: A Strategic Advantage for Today's Law Firms
Minneapolis, MN - Brand identity, technical flexibility and fiscal responsibility are uppermost among the concerns of corporate law firms thriving in today's competitive business environment. In addition, law firms must integrate into their work practices and workspaces a variety of security and privacy measures to ensure client confidence, confidentiality and trust. HGA Architects and Engineers (HGA), Minneapolis, is innovatively addressing these needs with the design of conference centers strategically located within law-firm headquarters.
"Consolidating conference and meeting facilities in one location inside a law firm's headquarters provides that firm with a number of economic and strategic advantages," says Rich Bonnin, AIA, architect, HGA. Bonnin recently completed conference-center projects for three high-profile law offices in high-rise buildings in downtown Minneapolis: Oppenheimer Wolff %26 Donnelly; Fredrikson and Byron; and Fulbright %26 Jaworski.
"In the current economy, several aspects of cost-effective resource allocation can be addressed with the design of in-house conference facilities, while at the same time improving office security and client privacy," Bonnin adds. By consolidating conference rooms in one area or on one floor, he explains, a law firm can effectively create a public face that supports and communicates the firm's brand and identity.
The law firm can also concentrate expenses like artwork, conferencing technology, high-end finishes and decor, and the costs of preparing and cleaning up meeting rooms in this central public hub. "When clients no longer need to meet with their attorneys in nooks, crannies and offices scattered throughout the headquarters, and instead only see and experience the conference center," Bonnin explains, "a law practice can focus its financial, technological and personnel resources on that conference center."
"The conference center provides client comfort while communicating and reinforcing the firm's brand, and the rest of the office space can be devoted to the more utilitarian tasks of getting the work done," Bonnin adds. Moreover, the costs of spending valuable time, as well as resources on off-site meetings (which include room rentals, catering and transportation costs) are quickly recouped and then remain within the firm with the creation of on-site conference facilities.
Common Features of Conference Centers. While the programmatic specifications of law-firm conference centers vary depending on a client's needs, all of Bonnin's designs feature meeting rooms of various sizes located in a single area of the firm's headquarters. They also all have a central entry point or lobby in which the firm's logo is displayed; the firm brand is also communicated and reinforced with a selected color palette and style of decor and furnishings. Artwork or large-screen plasma-tv monitors also communicate messages about the firm. In these lobbies, a greeter or concierge staffs a welcome desk and guides clients and visitors to their meeting rooms.
Large meeting rooms are outfitted with state-of-the-art communications technology like video-conferencing. Because many law firms don't allow wireless access for security reasons, the large conference-room table may need to incorporate connectivity wires and housing for microphones, cameras and Internet access. For each of the law-office conference -room tables that discretely support-and hide, when necessary-equipment for connective and technological flexibility. Smaller rooms for informal or two-person meetings, on the other hand, may need only Internet access.
Some of the law firms are located in the core of downtown Minneapolis where fire and occupancy codes on upper floors in high-rise buildings can pose challenges in the design of conference centers. "Within these tall downtown buildings the floors are coded as offices," Bonnin explains. "So if we change the use to an assembly or theater type, we have to pay close attention to how many occupants can be in the meeting rooms at the same time, and we need to accommodate the increased foot traffic." Codes for heating, air conditioning and lighting are also different for conference centers than for offices, as are the codes regarding fire exits and stairways for emergency egress.
Other considerations when designing law-office conference centers include finding proper wall colors and lighting to enhance the appearances of partners and staff when they're teleconferencing; sound proofing rooms for privacy; and, in low-ceilinged areas, creating an appearance of ceiling height using soffits and recessed lighting.
While a contemporary aesthetic is largely the norm in the design of law-firm conference centers, each of the three projects Bonnin designed address the distinctive needs, space considerations and culture of the individual firm with a customized palette of materials.
"More and more attention is being focused on in-house conference centers as the law firm's front door," Bonnin says. "So these areas are becoming a primary arena for communicating to visitors and clients about the firm's culture, its work, and its relationship to clients and community. As such, these projects require a concentration on design that can integrate the firms' needs for clear and strong identity, technological flexibility and responsible resource allocation." Another bonus these conference centers bring to their firms: They're recruiting tools to entice talented young lawyers to join the firm.
Highlights: Oppenheimer Wolff %26 Donnelly. For this consumer law firm, HGA consolidated 12 separate meeting rooms scattered throughout six floors into a single conference center on the 36th floor of the Plaza VII building in downtown Minneapolis. The renovation required that several offices be moved to floors below. But because the 36th floor can only be accessed via the 35th floor, the entry restriction provided an ideal way to consolidate visitors, clients and meeting areas into one area with controlled access. A business office in the conference center also allows attorneys to complete paperwork without having to run downstairs to their offices.
The decor of the existing lower levels includes 10-inch-high mahogany crown moldings and dark carpets. While the project scope didn't include renovating all of the floors, the law firm still wanted a more modern look for its conference center-"but not such a radical change that people would arrive on floor 35, take the elevator to 36, open the doors and experience an aesthetic shock," Bonnin says. "The design and decor on each floor needed to have some connection to the other."
The solution, he continues, was to use such traditional materials as stone, metal and wood, but in contemporary ways. For the meeting rooms, Bonnin designed credenzas and cabinets of warm African cherry wood, and circular and rectangular conference tables of light-toned Anagray wood. The furnishings are composed of simple planes and lines, instead of intricate details.
In the hallways, Anagray storage cabinets line one wall, while on the other side of the hall are glass-walled conference rooms with a customized feature: To protect the occupants' privacy, Bonnin designed a frosted wave pattern that ripples along the hallway at the eye level of passersby. Transparent glass above and below the opaque wave pattern allows daylight from meeting-room windows on the building exterior to penetrate the corridor.
Bonnin also designed a variety of meeting rooms for the conference center, from small rooms for two people, to a room especially designed for teleconferencing, to a large meeting space for up to 150 people. "We asked the firm to collect data on the meetings they have; when, how often, how many people, technology requirements," Bonnin says. "They realized they didn't have a space big enough to get all the partners together once a quarter, or for firm receptions or shareholder meetings. They'd been doing this off-site."
The new large meeting room features spectacular views of the city through a band of windows along two walls. To "raise" the standard nine-foot-high ceiling, Bonnin carved a soffit into the ceiling and framed it with recessed lighting to create give the effect of more ceiling height.
Highlights: Fredrikson %26 Byron. HGA had previously worked with this business-law and trial firm on six floors of office space in the International Center in downtown Minneapolis. So when Fredrikson %26 Byron needed to expand in its current location in the U.S. Bank Plaza, the firm again asked HGA to design the renovation of the firm's seven floors rising to the top of the 40-story building-two of them into a two-level conference center.
HGA moved offices on the 40th floor to levels below to devote the upper two floors to a community-oriented conference center. "This firm does continuing-education programming for attorneys in the Twin Cities, and hosts a lot of luncheons with high-profile speakers," Bonnin explains. "Their civic mindedness is part of their mission. So one of their criteria was that we design a room in which the firm could host large events."
From the reception area with sophisticated modern furnishings of black and chrome, a grand open stairway with steel, wood and white-painted metal rails leads to the 200-seat conference room with panoramic views of the skyline. Once again, the building's low ceiling height made the room feel cramped, so Bonnin designed a recessed ceiling with cove lighting that produces the sensation of height and daylight above.
At the same time, Fredrikson %26 Byron asked HGA to create a new brand identity for the law firm. The firm's new logo features a signature red and italicized "k" in Fredrikson; the color is reinforced throughout the
conference center with red carpets. The decor also retains some of the dark woods of the firm's former offices. "It's a traditional law firm, but while the new furnishings are modern, we decided to keep the dark woods to reflect their history," Bonnin explains.
Highlights: Fulbright %26 Jaworski. The Minneapolis office of this international, corporate law firm occupies the 21st floor of the IDS Tower, designed by Philip Johnson, in downtown Minneapolis. "Because of the
iconic design of the IDS, with its multi-sided glass exterior," Bonnin says, "we selected modern furnishings to complement the clean-lined cabinetry of light woods, doors of steel and glass, and the limestone-tile floors."
The firm's conference center resides adjacent to the lobby. While the lobbies of most law-firm conference centers include a flat-screen television to project the firm's logo and messages of corporate identity, HGA designed an artful focal point for Fulbright %26 Jaworski: A glass wall in which famous legal quotes have been sandblasted. "The glass wall communicates that Fulbright %26 Jaworski is a serious, scholarly law firm grounded in tradition," Bonnin explains. "The wall engages visitors and clients, who read the quotes while they're waiting."
HGA also introduced the new concept of universal office size to the firm, a cost-saving innovation that communicates a philosophy of equality. The one-size-fits-all offices also have the same furniture to ensure maximum flexibility and simplify office switching to "briefcase moves," Bonnin says. To soften the jagged geometry of the IDS's exterior on the inside, Bonnin designed a core comprised of two long arcs. "The meeting rooms follow the curve the arc, which creates a softness and sense of movement in the conference center."
HGA Contact: Julie Luers (612) 758-4000 e-mail JLuers@hga.com
Media Contact: Susan Evans, Evans Larson (612) 338-6999 e-mail susan@evanslarson.com