Automation meets collaboration

Trimble seeks to use its positioning technology solutions to help businesses and governments change the world, but the company is starting the revolution at home. In the construction of ‘Trimble Rockies,’ its offices in Westminster, Colorado, the company is using smart planning to eliminate wasteful activity. A focus on efficient processes naturally reduces construction’s environmental impact because fewer resources are used in terms of manpower and energy.

When the company identified the need for a new building in Westminster, its own products played a central role in the effort to streamline various construction components. For example, the Trimble 3D GCS900 Machine Control System, which involves GPS devices placed on graders, dozers, and excavators, controls the blades automatically, slashing the site preparation time in half, and thus reducing carbon emissions from the equipment.

After construction is complete, the building’s orientation will further minimize resource consumption. The building is long and narrow, situated facing east and west to maximize daylight and reduce heat load. “The structure is doing as much as possible to be productive and efficient,” says Jarrod Krug, Trimble’s building construction communications manager.

The incorporation of extensive daylighting, with shaded high-performance Solarban 70XL clear glazing and integral light shelves, will be a major factor in the building’s projected LEED Gold status, says Rick Petersen, a principal with OZ Architecture and the project’s lead designer.

In addition to earning LEED points, the daylighting is expected to give employees a mental boost, as will the beautiful view of the Rockies in the distance. “There is a lot of psychological benefit that comes from access to sunlight,” Krug says. Trimble also added a fitness center and bike racks to encourage employee wellness.

But the new building’s greatest benefit for employee well-being might be the enhanced opportunities for employee collaboration and camaraderie. The building will have a transformed layout that incorporates many more communal work spaces, including a covered patio, central atrium, and wide aisles between workstations that accommodate shared work spaces. “We’re doing more than a box containing a bunch of cubes,” Petersen says. “The building really fosters more of a sense of community than they’re used to.”

As Krug points out, this emphasis on unity is important to Trimble, which is regularly acquiring other companies and bringing their employees into the fold. The group work spaces will help facilitate assimilation. “The reason we’re doing this is to create a home for people to work together,” Krug says.

That home is intended to stand for decades as well. As Petersen notes, the most sustainable building is one that will stand the test of time. “The building is organized in a very flexible, modular, systemic matter,” he says. “It will never be thrown away. It is really going to be a lasting, functional home for Trimble.”