The Hartford Corporate Office
Windsor, Connecticut
Modern
To keep pace with its fast-growing business, The Hartford owner developed this 75-acre site to ultimately accommodate a campus of approximately 600,000 SF of building area and approximately 3,000 parking spaces.
The first two phases of the project had a total building area of 457,000 SF and over 2,200 parking spaces. In addition to providing 2,300 jobs in the local community, this project also included the development of a brownfield site which had been previously used for agricultural purposes.
To convey the stability of this 200-year-old company, the building exterior incorporates a brick and precast concrete façade with punched window openings. Large expanses of curtain wall and a curved glass canopy and precast entry element were used to capture the innovation and energy of a modern financial services company.
The building was designed as a central hub with three spokes (wings) that radiate from a core element. This design concept allows for the future addition of the fourth and final wing with minimal disruption to the existing building.
Natural Light
CHK Architects assisted The Hartford in a transformation of their work environments. In the case of this Windsor Campus, most full height offices were eliminated in favor of open office work stations. Individual workstation sizes were reduced to provide more space for collaborative areas.
The workstations were clustered into “neighborhoods” with informal meeting areas at the edges. All full height construction was moved from the exterior wall to allow natural light to flood the open office spaces and reach far into the interior of the building.
Collaboration
Meeting rooms were built in three different size modules which would allow for simple reconfiguration, if required, in the future. Project Rooms were provided for groups that needed the ability to reserve a space for the duration of a given assignment. A number of different size training rooms were provided to accommodate various types and styles of training.
All of these meeting spaces were outfitted with sophisticated AV technology which would enhance collaboration with team members who were both on-site and off-site. A number of spaces were created to foster various degrees of informal collaboration. The location and character of the break rooms and lounge areas provided a more casual environment for informal conversation.
