Aug 22, 2003/ FW/ --- Space planning and design for commercial projects often have their memorable, perhaps unusual, challenges.

In the case of Pacific Life's new Group Insurance divisional headquarters in Irvine, California it was the need to accommodate the insurer's well-known blue whale mascot - not the full-size mammal, of course, but the prized, 30-inch tall bronze statue.

Pacific Life Building Lobby

H. Hendy Associates of Irvine, the firm retained by Pacific Life for the project, created a prominent niche in the building's lobby to showcase the statue, as well as tackled space-planning issues to house some 600 employees.

The newly completed headquarters encompasses 120,000 square feet of "build-to-suit" space within a five-story building in the Main Corporate Center at 2300 Main Street.

This move consolidates three separate facilities from Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach where the Group Insurance Division had been located for 22 years.

As it turned out, making the planned space work to achieve space and productivity goals for those 600 staff was the biggest challenge for the design team.

Pacific Life Open Office

Fortunately, the designers, led by Principal Kerry Wilson, were involved from the start with developer Layton Belling Associates and "shell" architect Langdon Wilson, when they realized the need to define a new proportion for the building's floor plates to maximize bay size within the allowable square footage.

"We performed our standard programming, or analysis of the employees' needs, work flow and communication, to determine how the space would be configured," said Wilson.

"We realized early on the need to adjust the column spacing to accommodate the 'universal' office standards and workstation modules. The original configuration would have resulted in too much wasted space," he added.

H. Hendy was also able to add such extras as a sky-fold partition for dividing the learning center into two training rooms.

Other client requirements included a lactation room to accommodate nursing mothers, a café with servery (see photo at left), an employee meeting room and showers.

"We were delighted to collaborate with Pacific Life on this major undertaking," said Wilson, "while coming in on time and on budget."

Founded in 1979, H. Hendy Assoc. is ranked among the Top 100 interior designers nationwide by Interior Design magazine. The firm specializes in interior space analysis, planning and design for corporate offices and headquarters, call centers, automotive design studios, biotech and medical facilities, and retail and hospitality projects.

(Photos courtesy of H. Hendy Associaties)