Coordinating a renovation can be tricky business under ideal circumstances, but renovating a space while occupying it increases the logistics considerably. Sometimes companies don’t have the luxury of having extra “swing space” to use during renovation. Often the rent on temporary or swing space, if it is available, is cost-prohibitive. The only option: “renovate around us.”
Two Boston-based companies have experience with “renovating while occupying” and took different approaches to achieving the same outcome: a newly designed and renovated office.
Fiduciary Trust Company made the decision to co-exist with the inconvenience of construction on 45,000 square feet of office space while operating the financial services company. Fiduciary’s primary goal for the general contractor was to eliminate disruptions to the business. Construction needed to be organized and discreet so that clients wouldn’t know that work was underway. The renovation was complex and planned in three phases. It helped immensely that the landlord agreed to provide temporary office space elsewhere in the building and that empty space on one of Fiduciary’s floors could be used as “swing space” before it too was remodeled. Everyone had to move at least once to accommodate the phased schedule. Noisy construction activities had to be performed during nights and weekends to reduce disturbance to Fiduciary’s business as well as to neighbors in the building. The renovation was accomplished without completely shutting down the business, and no one had to leave the building.
The renovation of 22,000 square feet of existing office space for Linedata, a global solutions provider dedicated to the investment management and credit community, required careful planning as well. The office design was updated and renovated while Linedata continued to occupy the space, and construction was tightly coordinated in three phases of two weeks each. The strategy: to have employees work from home for two weeks at a time as their part of the office was renovated. Without the use of swing space, the various contractors came in three times to complete the project scope, which included new workstations, furniture, finishes, and lighting, as well as boardroom and reception upgrades and the addition of a video-conferencing room. While this approach can sometimes add to the cost of the project, the rent on temporary or swing space would have been considerable as well. Linedata was very flexible, understanding, and accommodating in regard to the disruption, and the renovation was completed in about six weeks.
With a phased and careful planning of the design and tight coordination of the construction, it is possible to renovate a space while the client occupies it. It may not be the ideal approach to a renovation or restoration project, but in this tight economy it gets the job done.
