ALL VOLLEYBALL HQ 2.0 – ST. LOUIS COUNTY
2020 was an interesting year to say the least and as alluded to in previous blog posts we pressed on through the pandemic completing several projects for our wonderful clients. One of the highlights is the new headquarters and main production facility for All Volleyball. The project began in January with the search for a suitable building. Early in the process it had been decided that leasing was advantageous to new construction. We formed criteria and toured many potential facilities with the client ultimately settling on a space in Green Park, St Louis County in early March. The space was in good shape and relatively clean. Once selected we went to work planning how to transform it to meet All Volleyball’s needs.
A bit of backstory; this is the second project I’ve directed for All Volleyball having completed their previous headquarters years ago. It has been great to see the company grow and transform over the years being handed down to the next generation of the family to manage. As is the case with transition in business, the program for the new headquarters is different than the previous. Gone is the retail component that had defined the company for a generation. In its place is infrastructure for people and systems to support online sales. Outsourced manufacturing units are brought in house as well as existing production systems expanded. Storage is a main point of emphasis with offsite storage having been previously utilized much to the client’s chagrin. All this will now be under one roof with planned racking capacity and circulation efficiently defined.
Back to the design and planning, at this point in the story is when Covid awareness initially hit the United States. Lockdowns swept the country and businesses were forced to transform almost overnight. All Volleyball quickly adopted a remote work policy and began revising financial projections. Here at REspace we are a virtual firm and so were fortunate in that the ever growing pandemic did not disrupt our operation significantly.
We completed our process of gathering all of the programmatic data needed to inform the design. Then measured and documented the space in detail to create our Revit model of the existing conditions. Concurrently, the three relevant jurisdictions were contacted and their individual requirements documented for use during design and permitting. Once complete we proceeded to pull together a schematic design set of drawings based on the programming, code and local data gathered. We then began the process of working back and forth with the Client to refine and detail the design. After several iterations, revisions reacting to ever changing Covid protocols and some value engineering a contractor was selected and the construction got under way in mid August 2020.
Stryker Construction was selected by the Client and executed the build efficiently completing construction by early November. Our construction phase services were limited to permitting, remote support and specific onsite project milestone reviews being performed. The execution of the construction went smoothly with the Client, the Contractor and the REspace team of architects and engineers all working hand in hand to make the project a success.
Many thanks to Corey, Krista, Shannon, Wayne, Kris, and the All Volleyball team; Gary, and his team at Stryker Construction; Jack and the team at ADG; as well as all of the subs and vendors that made this project possible.