IT-Friendly Design

Once the decision was made to move, says Novak, the first step was understanding in a comprehensive way the firm’s current and future tech needs. This led to an intensive multiyear program, wherein just about every aspect of the firm’s tech operations was subjected to a rigorous analysis in order to establish optimum benchmarks for a new building.

“The aim,” Novak says, “was to identify where we needed to go in terms of tech and what would be required to get us there. In the 1970s and ’80s, mission-critical tech systems—that is, systems that are available anywhere in the world on a 24/7 basis—weren’t standard in the legal industry. Today, they are.”

Phase one of the analysis, which lasted about 18 months, involved developing algorithms for basic building components like power, cooling and square footage.

The second phase consisted of creating computer-generated mock-ups of the 24 floors Kirkland will occupy in the 57-story building and testing various scenarios for installing the different tech configurations being considered. This phase was completed last fall just as the building was breaking ground.

The final phase, which is still under way, involves the actual programming of floors right down to where the secretaries will sit and what kind of telephone headsets they will be wearing. The firm expects to move into the building in the second quarter of 2009.

A critical consideration in all three phases was the human equation. “You have to know what your company culture is before you can choose the right technology,” says Kirchoefer.

For instance, a key question for most high-tech buildings is whether to install raised floors to accommodate the wiring for individual workstations. The upside is that it makes reconfiguring floors much easier. The downside is that it increases the total height of the building and thus the total cost.

“We studied the way we do business and realized we don’t work in a bullpen environment where business units come and go and desks are being constantly rearranged,” says Novak. “That’s not part of our culture, so for us, there isn’t a lot of value in spending the extra money it would take to raise the floors.”

In all three phases, Novak has worked closely with both Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architects designing Kirkland’s floors, and also with Baker Robbins & Co., a technology consultancy based in Chicago. (The building itself is designed by Pickard Clinton.) Baker, says Novak, provided “base level engineering” on IT-related mechanical, electrical and plumbing issues and also advised on future technology projections.