Publishing giant Pearson has brought its book divisions together under one roof and is encouraging staff to put a creative stamp on their new workspace.
Penguin, Dorling Kindersley, FT Knowledge and interactive offering Pearson Broadband, left their offices over the summer and moved into 80 Strand, a refurbished art deco building in central London. The Financial Times, also owned by Pearson, will remain at Southwark Bridge, while Pearson Education will keep its headquarters in Harlow with an administrative office at the new site.
Pearson's publishing interests are spread over the lower three floors and six upper floors of 80 Strand, formerly Shell Mex House. Stasco, a Shell company and Vizzavi, a Vodafone internet company, occupy the remaining floors.
Owned by Witkoff and Lehman Brothers, 80 Strand is a landmark building overlooking the River Thames, recognisable by its 'mantelpiece'-style art deco clock. The Penguin group includes Pelican, Viking, Ventura and Hamish Hamilton. Dorling Kindersley publishes on a range of subjects, including history, travel guides and cookery books.
The decision to move was taken following the acquisition of Dorling Kindersley last year by Penguin. Added to this, a number of leases were expiring and a new home was needed for the Pearson board.
Pearson facilities director John de Lucy says 1,300 staff have moved into the new headquarters from some 15 buildings around London including Penguin's main office in Knightsbridge and Dorling Kindersley's main office in Covent Garden.
The new headquarters features a restaurant and a cafe on the lower levels. There is one main computer room on site, plus four kitchenettes and copy rooms per floor. Colour- coded mail is brought to a post pod on each floor for staff to collect.
Unofficial break-out areas have been provided where requested. These feature wall-to-wall bookshelves. In the basement, an occupational health suite has been provided for staff.
De Lucy says the working culture at Pearson is very relaxed and staff dress informally. 'It's not merchant banking,' he says. 'It's very open and friendly. The atmosphere is easy-going and creative. People enjoy what they do.'
According to de Lucy, Pearson has given staff — who include publishers, copywriters, picture researchers and art designers — carte blanche to personalise their workspace. Visitors may find brightly coloured sofas next to desks; stuffed toys, including a leather camel; a bust on a shelf over a computer; a game of table football nestled between two desks and framed posters on the walls.
Modernity v antique
In the Penguin reception area, there is a neon sign on the wall flashing the words 'quote, unquote'. Elsewhere in the building, one senior employee disliked the modern furniture so much that he had his antique chair and desk moved into his office.
However not all staff eccentricities are being tolerated — staff cannot bring their pets to work, a practice that had been tolerated at some of the old offices. De Lucy says that their new landlord is not in favour of such a policy and so the dogs have to stay at home.
There is a nine-strong facilities management team at Pearson, plus a wide range of outsourced services. These include IGS for M&E, Pims for churn, Pythagoras for space planning, Shield for security, Houston and Church for catering, and TRG for reception and switchboard.
The facilities team works closely with the contractors — a representative from each contractor is based at Pearson to manage the smooth running of the contract.
Merrill Lynch
Innovation is the key to Merrill Lynch's new European headquarters located in London's Square Mile. From the state-of-the-art ventilation system to an around-the-clock restaurant, the institutional bank is creating a workplace to meet the needs of its employees.
Merrill Lynch's new financial centre is located on London's King Edward Street, next to St Paul's cathedral. For the first time in the bank's 40-year history in London, its regional management, investment banking, research, equity and debt groups, are together under one roof.
Daniel Donohoe, director of corporate initiatives for corporate services, says: 'The project seed was the merger in 1995 of Merrill Lynch with Smith Newcourt.
'Our investment banking and debt trading was based at Ropemaker Street while equity trading and equity research was based at Farringdon. We wanted the business together under one roof.'
The new financial centre consists of two buildings giving 54,000 sq m of occupiable space. Inside the main building are two 6,226 sq m trading floors, one for equity and one for debt. The trading floors feature the world's largest installation of Reuter's 3000xtra, an electronic trading and data system, with over 1,300 terminals.
Designed by architects Swanke Hayden Connell, the centre can accommodate 4,200 employees. In addition to the trading floors, the nine-storey main building features a roof garden, an auditorium, a general office, a client centre, a staff restaurant and an M&E plant.
Donohoe explains the philosophy behind the financial centre is to bring back the 'water cooler' chat of days gone by. 'Before the move, staff were split among many buildings and working spaces, an arrangement not optimal for our kind of business,' he says.
'The new financial centre has been developed so that offices areas are very open and bright with sight lines which allow you to see your co-workers across extremely large spaces. It's like a village.'
The physical openness of the building is a useful aid in the battle against stress, something that goes with the job. The hours worked by traders are gruelling since they depend on the trading hours of three different markets.
'The working culture is very hard,' admits Donohoe. 'London is the central point between the Far East and New York; people work very long hours. We have tried to make life easier for staff by considering the look of the building and the kind of facilities provided.'
Merrill Lynch has pulled out all the stops to make life easier for its employees. Traders accustomed to sending out for pizzas in the small hours will soon be able to order hot food around the clock in the soon to open staff restaurant.
In addition, they will be able to pump iron at the on-site gym, relax in the occupational health suite treatment room, and book appointments at the dentists, opticians and hairdressers. A variety of on-site shops will also be provided, including a pharmacy and a newsagent.
There is an extensive choice of on-site catering services. These include Roux Fine Dining for executives, plus Director's Table, and Track One and Track Two deli outlets for employees. On Newgate Street, a parade of shops will include services such as a dry-cleaning outlet.
Break-out areas are a key feature of the trading floors, providing an attractive space for ad-hoc meetings, relaxing and socialising. Located in the walkway between the windows and the trading desks, furniture in these zones is uncluttered, allowing maximum daylight to filter through to the trading floor.
The seven-strong facilities management team is headed by Charles Kirkman, first vice-president, responsible for corporate services Europe, Middle East and Africa. Contractors include Lancaster for cleaning, Avenance for reception, Tweed Park for the gym and MITIE for the helpdesk and mailroom.
One of the main challenges facing the facilities management team was the installation and management of the kind of IT systems needed to power a state-of-the art trading floor.
Gary Fryer, director of technology for the project, says: 'It's an intelligent building system. In most buildings each facilities vendor has its own cabling system. At the new financial centre, a series of grid outlet cables in the ceiling lead to a central frame where they can be patched to any service required. This means we use the same cables for different systems.'
Fryer says the structure of the cabling system allows for 'future proofing' by giving increased flexibility. 'If there is a change on the floor we don't have to re-route or re-lay a cable; it can be patched locally to the grid box. The same applies to all communication controls, lifts, additional lighting and cameras.'
A switched fibre optics network has been installed to answer the building's networking needs, providing 100Mb per second to desktops and 10Gb per second to the floors.
The TV distribution system and video on the trading floors are powered by the same fibre optics system, as are the videoconferencing and auditorium facilities elsewhere in the building.
The technology needed to power the computer systems has been positioned under each trader's desk rather than in a central location since the power needs of each individual varies.
Fryer explains why flat screens have been used rather than traditional monitors. 'With the flat screens on the trading floor, you can get higher user densities by reducing the space required per desk. Flat screens also give out less heat, but this is somewhat offset by the increased numbers per floor.'
So cool
The problem of how to cope with the heat generated by such a high concentration of hardware was resolved by installing an upward system of ventilation. Air is pumped up from the floor rather than downwards from the ceiling, immediately cooling the equipment installed under desks. Air that descends from the ceiling has much further to travel.
The orange air conditioning boxes which control the system are located on each floor and according to Fryer, have become a design feature. They have been acoustically enclosed to reduce noise.
Externally, designers had a series of obstacles to overcome in the design of the building, which took three years to construct.
The height of the centre was restricted to 35m in order to comply with limitations imposed by the City of London to satisfy St Paul's Cathedral's viewing requirements.
This in turn had an impact on the maximum height that could be allocated to each trading floor. Because of the heat and lighting implications, there was a need for the ceilings to be as high as possible without having to lose a floor. In the end, a compromise was reached; the trading floors were allocated ceiling heights of 3.5m, while the remaining floors have ceilings of 2.75m.
One of the major challenges facing the architect was the location of the new financial centre — it is in the middle of an area of archaeological interest. The site, which includes ruins of the Roman wall, is adjacent to the ruins of Sir Christopher Wren's Christ Church, Greyfriars. The churchyard contains the remains of several English queens.
The site of the financial centre also includes a Grade II listed former Post Office Building that Merrill Lynch is in the process of refurbishing. Eventually it will house offices and client conference rooms. The churchyard has already been refurbished and is open to the public.
Materials used on the site are predominantly Portland stone, red brick and clear glass. Merrill Lynch decided against the 'sleek black box' look, instead preferring a design which was more sympathetic to the surrounding buildings.
Kirkman says that the trading floors are now occupied while the rest of the site will be complete by Christmas, bringing total occupancy to 3,800. The Farringdon site is currently being refurbished and the company will leave the Ropemaker Street premises when the lease expires next year.
The new financial centre has become something of a model for Merrill Lynch's overseas centres. Of particular interest are the ventilation system and the use of natural light.
Source
The Facilities Business
