Re-Imagining Our Space

A Journey of Growth and Transformation

Marcus Construction moved our corporate office to Willmar, MN from Prinsburg, MN in February of 2011. Our building was formerly UBC Lumber and was significantly larger than our humble beginnings. There was a main office area but there were several large storage areas that we kept behind closed doors for years. Company growth trickled into one remodel after another cumulating into our largest renovation with our new Marcus Design Studio.

 

Reflecting on the decision to purchase the UBC Lumber building, Ross Marcus, our CEO, shared his perspective: "We knew the UBC Lumber property was an exceptional fit for our growth plans and offered an ideal location. Just like any move, we began to dream about how we could make this space our own. It wasn't an overnight transformation, but it's incredible to witness the changes and the vision of our Marcus team that made it happen."

 

A Recap of Our Office Expansion Journey:

• 2012: We expanded into part of the cold storage on the North side of the building, adding seven offices and a meeting room.
• 2014: Further expansion took place on the East side, creating seven additional offices.
• 2015: We re-imagined the exterior of our office building. Internally, we remodeled the central part of the original main office and the West side, introducing new offices and cubicles.
• 2017: A large conference room was added in a section of the cold storage on the Northeast side.
• 2021: We revamped cubicle space and a front conference room.
• 2022: An outbuilding was transformed and enclosed into a storage shed.
• 2023: The remaining portion of the cold storage on the North side of the building became the Marcus Design Studio, featuring 10 offices, a conference room, a break area, a product sample library, and restrooms. In response to the evolving needs of our team, we also created a quiet room for nursing mothers and individuals seeking mental health breaks.

 

Marcus Design Studio Before Photo

Marcus Design Studio After Photo

 

Navigating Our Own Commercial Project

As a design-build contractor, how do you approach a commercial building expansion project when it’s your own? In our experience…no different than we would handle it for our clients.

 

Over the past several years we’ve done several office expansions, remodels and renovations but focusing on our most recent expansion with our Marcus Design Studio, this was a great exercise of stepping into our customers' shoes. The design phase was a big task for our design team as we aimed to make this renovation of our cold storage area a showcase of our design capabilities. So, our Marcus Architecture & Design Group had that pressure…along with having dozens of ‘project owners’ – aka fellow coworkers in the office that had a million ideas and suggestions for the space they had to sort through!

 

The primary driver for the Design Studio expansion was the need for space. As Marcus Construction continued to grow, we found ourselves running out of office space (literally, we had one employee in a supply closet temporarily…sorry about that Andy!). Other essential design considerations included:

• Ensuring a high-quality workspace for our employees
• Maximizing natural lighting
• Creating an open concept with an emphasis on spaciousness
• Establishing the Marcus Design Studio as a space we could proudly present to clients and potential partners, inspiring them for their own projects

 

It was a great chance to value-engineer all scopes of work to make sure we stuck to the construction budget. And sticking to a schedule – it’s easy when it’s your project to push it to the back burner or the bottom of the totem pole but like all Marcus construction projects, we had a project manager assigned to the project that kept it on track.

 

Let’s Chat with The Designer

We visited with Mindy Joneson, one of our Project Designer’s that took lead on the design for our new Marcus Design Studio.

 

Why was our office expansion necessary?

As a company, we had outgrown our space and departments were a bit scattered throughout the office. With moving our design department to the new Design Studio, offices opened allowing us to reorganize and get departments together.

 

Also, as our design team has grown and our architectural and design services continue to flourish, we are hosting more client design meetings in our office and desperately needed a dedicated area for our sample library – the new Design Studio accomplishes that.

 

What were some of the design requirements for re-purposing the space?

We had a lot of input and discovery meetings to get feedback and thoughts about the new space from nearly every department at Marcus. With the sheer amount of talented people on our team, we knew there would be creative ideas and insight that would only make the Design Studio that much better.

 

An open office design concept with minimal walls and closed spaces was heavily agreed upon by everyone. The entire design team wanted access to natural light so to achieve this we brought the offices to the center of the space with glass faced office fronts that face the gathering spaces on the exterior walls with large storefront windows. The break area is one of these gathering spaces, along with a spark table for team huddles, and a conference room – all flooded with natural light. The conference room is known as ‘The Garage’ and has an overhead glass garage door that is kept up to create openness when not in use, and when it is in use all the natural light still comes through to the whole design studio, yet provides for private meetings. We wanted a functional yet enjoyable space to work in and host clients in while having a future growth plan. That was accomplished by adding a mezzanine over the offices that is currently known as ‘The Deck’ and used for after hour socializing but can be used for future cubical space.

 

Other essential additions were more restrooms for our growing team, an area to display and easily access our product library, and a new mechanical room for this new portion of the building.

 

What inspired you on the design of our new Design Studio?

I love simple palettes that are brought to life through the mindful placement and addition of textures. I wanted to create a timeless space that will serve us well into the future. And most importantly, I really wanted to highlight the existing structural framing that even as a cold storage area made this space unique – that drove the design to make those frames a key feature.

 

Is there any symbolism in the design features we chose?

Absolutely. With our clients, when we get to know their business, our design team likes to find a way to incorporate things that are important to them into their building design. In our case, we wanted to showcase how the materials we build with on a daily basis – like concrete, steel and wood can be used in creative ways.

 

Let’s start with the wood – plywood is a staple in construction. I knew quickly that to make those existing structural frames be the highlight of the space I wanted to wrap them with birch plywood. These offered a smooth texture with a light color that simply wowed. For contrast in both color and texture we created floor to ceiling wall panels on two areas with a rougher plywood planking painted black. Portal frames were added around ‘The Garage’ and our product library by using glulam’s and this wood is absolutely stunning after some sanding and stain!

 

Concrete again is a staple construction item. We used hallow core concrete planks with a concrete topping for our new mezzanine floor with a sealed finish.

 

Then there is the steel. Talk about another wow-factor. Our Preconstruction Project Manager, Joel Nieuwbeerta, drew the fabrication drawings for all the steel parts and sent them over to our long-time partner, West Central Steel who made the parts for us. Then stepped in our talented shop team who painted, erected and installed these perfectly placed black steel pieces that are both functional while creating a visual masterpiece of sleek, sharp lines. Joel had also added in a few ‘Easter eggs’ with our Marcus ‘M’ in the stair backers and ‘Marcus Construction’ lasered out of the bottom step. Branding and customization at its finest.

 

Lastly, in wanting this space to be a showcase for clients we wanted to show a variety of elements so they could see first-hand different product use. For example, we used ceiling tiles to create clouds for noise control, metal ceiling tiles in the break room to dress up the space and exposed concrete ceilings in the offices. Another example is our lighting, we used linear lighting, puck lights, 2x2 LED lights, pendant lights and cabinet lighting. They all have their purpose and create different ambiances so now we can easily show that to clients.

 

Project Affirmation

We would like to thank all the subcontractors that worked on our project, the talent in this industry is truly remarkable. From crafting custom live-edge wood tables with beautiful steel work bases, IT needs to connect this area, creative electrical work to hang lights in a variety of ways, perfect cabinet craftsmanship, to effortless looking spiral duct placements and many, many, more – thank you.

 

We have received positive feedback from clients and local businesses who visited for tours, validating our goal to make this space a showcase of our business. They've noticed the intricate details, appreciated the ambiance, and explored the products we can offer. In terms of our team's working environment, it's safe to say that our design team is now so content in their new space that they rarely emerge from it!

 

Have an office renovation or remodel you are considering? Contact our talented Marcus Architectural & Design Group to see if we are the right fit for your construction project.