April 25, 2005 Vol. 1 Issue 2
Shared Vision: Designing an "Employee
Centric" Building
The Workstage Phase I Process

From the first meeting, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. realized their shared vision with Workstage -- about the importance of user-centered, sustainable, and high performance environments.

It was because of Steelcase's long-standing relationship with the cruise company that the two teams met. Steelcase, an owner of Workstage, toured their client through Workstage's headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan -- A meeting that began the creation of the most employee-centric, energy-efficient call center in the nation.

"It was the way that Workstage approached the design and construction of a building, " explains Russ Bogue, Director of Facilities Management for Royal Caribbean, "their employee-oriented, sustainable, and quality emphasis was in line with our corporate culture."

Royal Caribbean engaged Workstage to complete a Phase I for their new west coast call center project. This 45-day Phase I process employed by Workstage, ensured:

• Focus of the entire project team on the holistic goals of the building: users, architectural firm, estimators, and designers
• an integrated design process ensuring the implementation of 'Green' technology
• Planning, programming, and schematic design were expedited and integrated early-on with budget and schedule

Ensuring a high performance building from the beginning:
The Workstage team began by gathering user needs, municipal and site related investigations and cost parameters simultaneously. The results of the information gathering were shared with the entire project team at a two-day "deep dive" design charette, held at Royal Caribbean's headquarters' in Miami.

This intense team effort consisted of brainstorming design ideas, reviewing programming and concept sketches, and green building strategies.

Workstage design charette - an intense team brainstorming session that involves reviewing programming and concept sketches, and green building strategies.

Additionally, the project team discussed site considerations and the building's special requirements - 'the Centrum' - a central gathering place, a wellness center, a café, exterior terraces and dining areas, data centers, and server rooms.

After the charette, the design team (architect, client and Workstage) continued refinement to align user needs, budget, aesthetics and green building technology. Programming and concept development produced preliminary floor plan adjacencies and space needs information. The remainder of site investigation was completed.

Centrum - a central gathering place that Royal Caribbean was interested in implementing for its employees

The entire project team reviewed the concept plans prior to the formal packaging of the documents. After a series of evaluations by each member of the team, a final Phase I Package was delivered on April 28, 2004. The final package included an executive summary of the project, detailed outline specifications, a project schedule, the budget outline, and preliminary site plan, interior/exterior renderings, an elevation, a building section, and floor plans.

After delivery of Phase I Package, plans continued to refine and evolve right up until construction began in February 2005.

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