UK - Back in June 2004, ETC unveiled its new $21m corporate headquarters in Middleton, Wisconsin, complete with an elaborately-themed common area for staff. Designed by the company's engaging CEO, Fred Foster, along with a talented team of architects and artists, this themed set-piece was described as being "like an old-time movie set waiting for its gangster extras, or a Broadway musical stage before the dancers appear".
Foster saw the theatrical concept as an homage to the business his company operates in. Based on the paintings of Edward Hopper, the 'Town Square' concept was designed to provide ETC's 450 employees with a more rewarding, communal space in which to work. When the company's European HQ in London moved recently from its existing three units in North Acton to a single unit nearby, the opportunity arose to apply the same thinking which had been so successful at Middleton.
The new premises has now been unveiled, and includes a theatrical creation, which Foster was once again instrumental in bringing to life (he signed himself 'Head Carpenter and CEO' on the launch party invitations). This time around, the theme is a classic period theatre, complete with red plush drapes, gilt relief 'plasterwork' (MDF) and a painted, tuxedoed audience. The painted 'walls' are, like the facades of Town Square in Middleton, made from expanded steel mesh, which acts like a theatrical scrim. In full daylight conditions, the offices above and around the space are clearly revealed; the more the mesh is front-lit, the more the audience stands out, and the illusion of the intimate theatre space is created.
Named 'The Playhouse at Gypsy Corner' after the local area, the creation serves a number of purposes, as Foster relates: "In Middleton, we wanted to build a common space to draw people together, and that's the primary mission of both these spaces - to be a meeting place for the employees. So when we started looking at the London operation, it was a parallel model: we were in three different units just down the block . . . so, although it was only 25 people, there were the communication problems and all the things that we had solved successfully with Town Square."
A secondary purpose of these schemes, originally found with Town Square, was to increase the amount of informal communication within the company ("ETC had become bound by meetings," says Foster). By bringing staff into the common area, the rise in informal communication would, it was hoped, negate the need for so many formal meetings. "That [Middleton] has worked exceedingly well," says Foster. "The number of scheduled meetings is dramatically reduced . . . we were able to reduce the number of conference rooms we needed: the plan for the building originally had 17 conference rooms - and I screamed bloody murder!" Foster laughs. "We got it down to 11 - which is about eight too many!"
To illustrate the point, he recalls: "I saw one good exchange there, where someone from the metal shop was sitting down with an engineer and he had a part in his hand, and as I walked up he said to me 'This is great, I just talked to Max and I found where this hole really should be - it would have taken me three days to find the answer before'."
Another purpose in both projects, says Foster, was in "trying to make the building reflect the culture of the company - which is not a very hierarchical company". Rejecting this conventional hierarchy isa serious issue for Foster. In Middleton, he had disliked the idea that staff progressed from concrete, to lino, to carpet as they climbed the corporate ladder: "It's the people who build the product that we sell who really generate our revenue, and it's the people on the carpet - and I am the worst example! - who are a fixed overhead, and who really squander the money!" he says.
So h
