Best of 2005 Awards

Diageo North American Headquarters

Award of Merit: Interior Fit Out

Columbia Law School has a dormitory to call its own.

"Edgy."

"Impressive."

"Funky."

"Spectacular."

Those are a few of the adjectives that the Best of 2005 judges used to describe the interior design of the new corporate headquarters of Diageo, the international liquor wholesaler.

Diageo built a new seven-story glass office building in Norwalk, Conn. It moved 700 employees from several office buildings in nearby Stamford, making the new $26.5 million Norwalk building its North American headquarters.

The company is big on branding, and it wanted its 280,000-sq.-ft. home office to be functional as well as expressive. The Best of 2005 jury thought the design and construction teams succeeded, with one member calling it a "spectacular site," with a "unique, edgy design."

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The building's working area includes conference space, quiet rooms, and pantry areas, with a fitness center for employees on the ground floor. Crowning the building on the seventh floor is a conference and entertainment area that includes a board room, nine conference rooms, a pair of video-conference rooms, a game area, a café with flat-screen TVs, and a custom-made, elliptical bar made of hand-rubbed bronze.

Behind the bar are, of course, Diageo's liquor brands.

The building has more than 100 types of custom lighting fixtures and nearly 50 types of specialized wall coverings. Carpeting throughout the building features custom patterns, and the elevator lobbies are lined with terrazzo.

The judges also recognized the tight time frame for completing the project, which called for construction of a sizable office building from scratch in just nine months - with a five-phase employee move-in taking place as work proceeded. The effort, overseen by New York-based Turner Construction as general contractor, began in July 2004.

The final employees moved into their new offices in May.

During the project's peak activity, more than 250 construction workers were onsite, often as Diageo employees worked elsewhere in the building.

"They had a really tough schedule," said one judge. "They went from design to occupancy in nine months. That was pretty impressive."

Key Players

Owner: Diageo North American

Owner's Representative: Quartararo and Associates/Jones Lang LaSalle

Architect: CPG Architects

General Contractor: Turner Construction

Engineer Team: Hallisey, Pearson, & Cassidy; Edwards & Zuck; Carlo Fanone

Consultants: CCR Associates; Communications Project Management; Post & Grossbard

Subcontractors: Atlantic Masonry Products; Byrne Millwork; Component Assembly Systems; ComNet Communications; CRF; Draperies, Inc.; Ducci Electrical Contractors; Elmsford Sheet Metal Works; J & G Glass; Kelley Brothers Hardware; Mackenzie Painting; M. Gottfried; M.J. Daly & Sons; Otis Elevator; Post Road Iron Works; Rochester Flooring Resource; Smith Automatic Sprinkler; Verrex; Warehouse Store Fixture; T. Arduini Co.