Serving eastern Canada's wall and ceiling industry

By: Jessica Krippendorf

Open Text is Canada’s largest software company, and its four-storey, Waterloo-based headquarters recently underwent an extensive retrofit that opened its four storeys up to natural light and a fresh, contemporary design. The building was constructed in 2005, but needed a face lift late in 2008 because of significant company growth, and a desire to improve its overall workspace to attract and retain the best talent. Vibrant colour and a dynamic floor design brought new life into the previously white-walled, all-too-typical office space that used to seat 100 employees per floor behind seven-foot cubical partitions that all but eliminated access to the natural light let in by the exterior curtainwall.

“They wanted to encourage a collaborative type workspace,” says Cheryl Smith, principle with Hunt Club Design, which created and oversaw the design of the retrofit. “We wanted to infuse the space with something a little more dynamic and fun. Open Text is a high-energy environment, but what they had was a little bland.”

Smith’s biggest challenge was finding the space she would need to meet the owner’s request to increase the workspace density. “It seemed impossible at first to take everything they were looking for and fit it into the floors.”

The final layout in the 113,000 square foot space placed workstations around a central core of executive offices, mechanical rooms, washrooms, elevators, and closet space. Eleven-foot-high ceilings and the curtainwall provided the potential for openness and the required additional space. The owner’s request for increased workspace density was met using an open concept furniture system. Removing the partitions encouraged interaction and openness fuelled by natural light and greater access to views, but also opened up the need to address sound and privacy.

“We had to consider the need for spaces for social interaction and creative brainstorming,” says Smith. “With taking away the cubes and giving them an open concept space we had to create areas of privacy. They didn’t want formal meeting rooms, and we didn’t want big walls or to block any light.”

Each floor features casual, light-filled lounges or meeting rooms, glass-walled in prime corner locations and furnished with flexible, but functional pieces. Coffee bars on each floor are also glassed in, and feature granite counters with bar stools where employees can break for coffee and make use of a servery for snack preparation. These areas were previously sitting areas that people saw as being off-limits because they weren’t integrated with the space.

“They really needed a face lift,” says Smith. “We infused vibrant colours into these areas and developed a branding strategy using eye-grabbing graphics on a film application so the light goes right through them. They accentuate and bring excitement to these areas.

“We also put phone booths on every floor so the people who work there have somewhere to go to make a personal call and have that privacy,” she adds.

A stainless, curved acoustical ceiling treatment from Armstrong Ceilings “provides drama to the space,” says Smith, while effectively solving the poor sound attentuation afforded by the high concrete ceilings. Serpentina® Waves with acoustic backing were used in the meeting areas, lounges, and coffee bars, and sporadically throughout the open work area. Common areas represent about 5,000 of the building’s total square footage, and the average size of each room is 12’ x 30’.

“Sound is no longer an issue,” says Smith, “even in places where all only a sliding glass door separates meeting and work areas.”

Kirlen Construction completed minor wall installations on each floor, including bulkheads above the glass wall enclosures to create closets, kitchenettes, and employee lounges. The floors were done in stages and at night “as their own entities” so as to not disturb people working in the space. The high point in the company’s work was the installation of the Serpentina Waves—to date, Canada’s largest installation of the relatively new product. The panels varied in size, with 33 6’ x 8’, 4’ x 10’, and 8’ x 12’ panels installed in total.

Serpentina Waves are metal infill panels suspended with extruded aluminum main beam and perimeter trim system, much like a traditional T-bar system. Panels range from four feet to 12 feet in length and come it two-foot widths. It’s possible to boost the acoustic value of the metal infills, as was done at Open Text, with optional poly-bagged fiberglass or laminated fleece backing.

The lineal footage of the wall work and number of panels installed at Open Text differed on each floor. On the basement level, Kirlen installed five Serpentina panels totalling 424 square feet. On the second floor the company installed nine panels (704 square feet), and the third and fourth floors took ten panels or 752 square feet each. Steve Harris, estimator and project manager for Kirlen construction says that although he was skeptical of the panels’ ability to deflect sound in the exposed concrete space, the product’s performance is quite impressive.

“It’s all open concept with exposed formed concrete and exposed columns, so removing echoes and reducing sound transfers was the objective,” says Harris. “This was the first time we’ve installed Serpentina and I was really impressed with the way they absorb sound.

“The process was simplistic. We went through the Armstrong catalogue and selected the perforations with the client and placed our order with our supplier. Armstrong then produced shop drawings for approval and sign-off, and this allowed us to start ordering floor by floor.”

The panels are available in pre-engineered kits based on the size of the job, or by custom order. Installation is easy and smooth, says Harris, adding that they go up much like a standard T-bar ceiling, with just a few extra steps along the way.

The system requires more layout work, with the hanger locations mapped out on the floor and measured ahead of time to determine exactly where the panels will sit. Gripple hangers are installed instead of standard 12-gauge wire and the mains are snapped in, in two-foot lengths. Each panel in this application hangs at 7.6 feet high at the low point of the wave, each of which uses a 45 degree arch (45 and 30 degree arches are available).

“The renovations have turned the space into a functional and interesting workplace with all the glass walls, Serpentina panels, and lighting,” says Harris.

The retrofit allows for 175 people per floor and ties the office levels in with the building’s grand entranceway, which features contemporary, maple-paneled walls, an eye-catching staircase, and a glass atrium that reflects patterns of light.

“[Before the work] it felt like the floors were eclipsed,” says Smith.

The project was a collaboration between Hunt Club Design, general contractor Melloul-Blamey, and James Fryett Architect. It started in November 2008, and was completed this past September. CWCJ