First Impressions Count
The Challenge
First impressions count and nowhere is this more important than at one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers and researchers.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is undergoing a major investment in its Barnard Castle estate and Service Design Partnership (SDP) has been an integral part of the team developing innovative M&E plans that will work for today’s company and take them into the future.
The façade is one of the first things visitors see, but like many organisations it is the last thing a company invests in majoring instead on research and development facilities. The company was keen that for the newly refurbished offices the façade would reflect the brand values of the business as dynamic, responsible, innovative and pioneering.
Service Design Partnership was called in to create electrical and mechanical designs for its façade, as part of the main office complex which also includes the corporate boardroom, and commercial offices.
The three main challenges with the façade were:
- Upgrading a very outdated M&E design
- Ensuring there was no disruption to productivity while the work was undertaken
- Ensuring it would give an attractive first impression for the future
This allowed us to:
- Improve the quality of the electrics in the short term and for the future
- Update the old facia with new branding
- Improve energy efficiency across the whole site
Service Design Partnership Solution
We created a forward-looking design that set the GSK name in lights attracting admiration from visitors to the site. It also improved and updated the existing M&E system providing additional capacity. We embedded energy efficiency into what was a very traditional system.
Once the façade was complete and it gave the site a facelift, we turned our attention to the rest of the commercial office complex.
Outcome
A three-stage office development was efficiently managed to deliver the client’s main objectives.
Their brand shines a light to visitors and employees in keeping with the organisation’s ethos and values.
Their existing system was updated and future proofed to be sustainable with innovative environmental technologies that provide real cost savings while not impacting detrimentally on productivity.
There was minimal downtime while the site was prepared for improvement and during work to upgrade the system. The new system enhances existing productivity, improves energy performance and has the capacity for future growth.
The whole was brought in on budget and within timescales.