Successful Large Office Relocation While Protecting a Historical Landmark

Challenge

Considered an architectural jewel, the municipal services building of Portland, Oregon was embarking on an ambitious two-and-a-half-year renovation.

Charged with protecting the architectural details in every space – from floor to ceiling – the Suddath^®  team had to be thoughtful and purposeful when considering each office move plan. The project stakeholders were not only city officials, architects and historic preservationists, but the deeply invested Portland citizens as well.

The Portlandia building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, had several requirements in order to quickly, delicately and efficiently move its over 1,300 occupants from 11 different departments into three different downtown locations.

Solution

The first requirement, due to the building’s historical and sentimental value to the city, was accountability. Its trustees selected Suddath because of the company’s strict safety standards, up-to-date Certificate of Insurance (COI) and building protection processes. For instance, durable floor covering to prevent damage to the original flooring, as well as corner, wall and elevator protection.

The second requirement was partnership and the reliability that comes with it. Not only would internal logistics and expectations need to be met – from the employees themselves, the construction company, as well as the project management firms – but the move would have to be expertly coordinated to strictly adhere to all city ordinances for a central business district move.

The main move needed to be completed over 10 phases, ranging from 90 staff members to 190 staff members per phase. The full decommission began before the last move was done, and was then completed ahead of schedule.

Because those 1,300 employees were across 11 different departments, Suddath’s team worked to learn as much as possible about the critical dependencies inside each of those groups to develop an optimized move plan. Identifying those crucial items is key to minimizing disruption to your business, because it allows us to develop an intelligent approach in sequencing when shipments leave, and when the furniture is installed.

Due to this optimized approach, coordination with IT disconnect and reconnect was key in ensuring that employees experienced little to no unexpected downtime.

To round out the effort, full transparency was provided through Suddath’s proprietary, technology platform, Tracker, powered by Telescio^®. With it, internal stakeholders were able to watch in real-time as desks were moved, installed and then broughtback on-line.

Results

Through weekly planning meetings, timely follow-up and constant communication, the Suddath team provided a consistent and effective solution week after week to complete all moves with a high level of success and quality

We were able to successfully move all 1,300 employees from the building, and properly set them up across ther three new locations.

Alongside the people and employee phases of the project, the team was coordinating a main directive to keep 20% of decommissioned furniture out of landfills. By leveraging our local resources, like non-profits and school systems, we were able to keep 95% of that furniture from going into a landfill.