Region’s coolest offices

The “experience economy.”

Remember these two words because you will hear – and see – more of them in years to come. Anyone who has ever been to Disneyland, the American Girl headquarters in New York City, any Starbucks or recently remodeled McDonald’s has already been exposed to it.

These are the kinds of places you go to make a purchase or do business, but also for the experience of being there. Such places anchor the experience economy, a phrase coined in 1999 by B. Joseph Pinell and James H. Gilmore in their book, “The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage.”

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But you don’t have to go to California or New York to check it out. You can do it here in Northern Colorado.

Applause, for example, greets visitors as they enter Group Publishing Inc. in Loveland. Clients at TST Inc. Consulting Engineers in Fort Collins tend to arrive early and stay late just so they can hang out near the fireplace, while clients at In-Situ Inc. frequently make themselves at home in one of several “family lounges.” Customers at Swift & Co. in Greeley can put on their own aprons and grill, fry or sauté to their hearts’ content.

Group Publishing

The recorded applause that plays as you cross the threshold is just the beginning of the total experience at Group Publishing, where 400 employees work at creating and supplying innovative resources for Christian churches. It turns out that the Group culture is as whimsical as it is serious. Seriously fun, that is.

The company’s new headquarters has generated so much interest that the company offers tours the first and third Tuesdays of each month.

As you enter the 47,000-square foot addition, developed in 2004 by Everitt Commercial Partners, it’s like walking into a Colorado mountain lodge. A warm and toasty fire sets the mood and … wait, what’s that mounted on the Lyons-sandstone fireplace? Why, none other than Bruce the Moose, the mascot of Group Publishing.

And, as schmaltzy as it sounds, he’s talking. In fact, he does so every four minutes. Listen carefully and you might – the key word here is “might” – recognize Bruce’s voice as that of president and founder Thom Schultz.

Walk to the other side of the fireplace and you will see that, unlike most mounted trophies, Bruce has a backside – a thank-you gift from the design builders at The Neenan Co.

Stroll a little further into the building and you’ll happen by the company store where all of Group Publishing’s products are available. Just beyond that is a fully staffed Starbucks bistro, inviting employees and visitors to drop in for a latte. It’s all part of the experience.

Group also makes its primary meeting room, set up like an auditorium with multiple screens and brightly painted walls in a motif that appeals especially to those in children’s ministry, available to the community. In fact, they’ve also opened up their modern recording studio, complete with “green screens” for creating video effects.

TST Inc.

Tours are frequent at TST as well. The civil engineering firm joined its original space on Whaler’s Way in the southeast of town with that of the building next door into a revitalized 19,000-square-foot space that can only be described as stunning. TST’s communications manager Ed Goodman along with Julia Sharp “engineered” the transformation themselves, forgoing outside help in the design or decor, while Dohn Connstruction did the work.

The magic begins the minute you walk in the front doors of what TST calls its “Engineerium.” An invitation to make yourself comfortable leaves you with a wealth of options of where. Next to the fireplace? Wait, is that fire coming out of “ice”? Or how about at the Fish Bar, so named because of the salt-water tank. Or the patio overlooking Harmony Lake? Nah, it’s too cool outside for that. But it is all so way cool.

Before the transformation, TST was “Beigeville,” Goodman said. “We had good teamwork before. It’s even better now.”

What made the difference? Color. Lots and lots of saturated color. Once an outside consultant to Walt Disney Co., Goodman called on a friend in charge of choosing colors for all Disney theme parks and animated films to help select the right hues.

When CEO Don Taranto saw the vivid oranges, blues and greens on the walls for the first time, he asked Goodman to reconsider. But Goodman stood his ground and asked Taranto to wait until everything was done. Let’s just say that TST did not return to a neutral palette.

The office space is broken up into different zones: water, earth, living plants and stone, all of which also are represented on the firm’s new logo. Windows and views are everywhere.

TST’s water zone evokes the tropics and the “Aspire” conference room continues the theme with a table featuring inlaid blue waves, water-drop pendant lights and an erasable idea board that looks more like a slab of ice. Water, Goodman said, represents the essence of life and beginning of new dreams and project visions.

The earth zone, where project visions can be shaped, molded and planned, includes the “Mindplay” room, where employees tack up photos and articles that serve as inspiration. Stools that bounce on big coil springs help employees bounce ideas around as well.

Sometimes you just have to get away from your cubicle to think. That’s easily done in the “Thinking” lounge. In fact, there are multiple lounges throughout the office complex, which can be used by employees and clients alike.

Carpet “rivers” flow throughout the building, helping employees to “not think like linear engineers, but more laterally,” Goodman said. A pair of stairways connect the second and first floors of TST’s space. But most employees and visitors choose a less pedestrian route, opting for a tubular slide that offers a faster trip, at least downward. “No one takes the stairs,” Goodman said. That includes clients.

The “Stone” zone on the main level contains the Surveying and Construction Services Group. And as you depart through the “Living Plants” zone, take time to notice the sand-dollar chandelier in the foyer. Wrapped in silk, the lighting fixture crafted in New York was an “extra” mistakenly ordered by the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Goodman claims he got a screaming deal.

Swift & Co.

Pat Huebner, senior vice president of business development at Swift & Co. in Greeley, is like a proud new father when he gives a tour of The Summit, the $6.6 million, 32,000-square-foot research and development addition completed in 2004. And for good reason: This is his baby.

Huebner had input to the design process from the beginning, in conjunction with architect and contractor The Neenan Co. and developer McWhinney Enterprises, the team that collaborated on the original ConAgra Inc. headquarters in The Promontory in 2001. For the R&D addition to the pioneering west Greeley building, Huebner came up with the overall concept, interior amenities, even the design for furnishings in the chef’s kitchen – everything from A to Z.

The Summit began as a simple drawing on a paper towel that’s now framed along with ensuing drawings that eventually became the facility where fresh beef and pork products are created, tested and shown off.

The show begins, literally, the minute a client enters the building. A customer interface screen welcomes visitors with a personal message or a Food Network show. To the left is a sweeping staircase, complete with company logos and magnificent art by Colorado artists Tom Owen and Clifford Bailey, leading to a curved balcony that is the administrative wing.

To the right on the main level is an ultramodern kitchen featuring stainless steel appliances, granite and Corian counters and barstools for 15. It is here that chefs, either Swift’s or the customer’s, can try out different cuts of beef and pork as if they were in their own kitchens, provided their kitchens have four-burner professional gas cooktops with griddles, grills and a fryer.

Cameras built into the ceiling capture the demonstration with network-television quality, and video discs of the event are given to customers.

Beyond the kitchen are rooms where new products are created and tested: $1.5 million of equipment allows researchers to grind, blend, inject and stuff as well as batter and bread, smoke, freeze and package new meat products before they are approved and in a grocery store or restaurant near you.

Next door, a 1910 butcher shop replete with an antique scale, aprons and Swift memorabilia is contrasted next to a 2006 version refrigerator case stocked with a revolving variety of new products, including marinated pork loin, chorizo and skirt steaks. The case also is used for shelf-life tests.

Historic Alley, which joins The Summit with the original Swift & Co. office complex, is filled with Swift memorabilia – photos, models, photographs – that were found by Huebner’s Web-surfing wife. Many are displayed in conjunction with museum-quality interactive videos, where with a push of a button customers can glimpse into company history, such as the story of how Gustavus Swift invented the first refrigerated rail car.

In-Situ

In-Situ’s north Fort Collins headquarters is a light manufacturing facility, but a visitor wouldn’t know that from the outside – or the inside, for that matter.

The first hint that In-Situ has something to do with water is its physical location next to the Poudre River. The water-quality monitor manufacturer has two test wells where clients and salespeople can test and demonstrate the company’s equipment. In-Situ also has a U.S. Geological Survey-approved gauging station about 100 yards upriver.

The second clue is in the lobby, where koi are at home in a free-flowing stream and a salt-water fish tank serves as a partial room divider.

Upstairs is like the extension of a high-end home. It’s light, airy, roomy and colorful. Clients and/or employees are encouraged to make use of the various lounges, one with a fireplace and contemporary chairs, indoors and out. Some of the lounges are referred to as “family rooms.”

Also in a lounge-like setting are computers for employee Web surfing or e-mail use and telephones for personal calls

Room names reflect In-Situ’s roots in Laramie, Wyo., where it operated for over two decades until moving south in 2004. CEO Bob Blythe’s conference room, for example, is named Tie Siding, after a small place where railroad ties are produced, while the Laramie Room is the training facility, complete with a small chemistry lab.

The manufacturing area on the main floor uses the Kaizen principle, which, according to Julie Yates, human resources director and in-house counsel, means In-Situ continually looks for new ways to do more in less space. But even here employees have easy access to outdoor views and the Starbucks coffee machine (another one is upstairs).

Yep, that ubiquitous cup of joe is firmly entrenched in the experience economy.