GLY celebrated a big move to Eastgate’s Cascade Yard last December, a change spurred by the impending redevelopment of our former location.
After calling Downtown Bellevue home for over 10 years, the move presented the opportunity to start fresh and build a vibrant space that enhances our brand identity and creates an ideal working environment for today’s employees. We faced challenges associated with any office move: a pending lease expiration and pressure to move quickly; balancing wants, needs, and wishes within a strict budget; and making environmentally sound decisions at every step.
Sustainability, one of our corporate values, may have been our biggest hurdle – as it can be for our clients. Tenant improvements [TIs] generally come with strict budgets, building constraints, and landlord parameters that make it more difficult to maximize energy efficient systems and sustainable materials. Our project was no different. Yet with creativity and tapping into the experts, sustainable TIs are achievable no matter your canvas or budget.
With only 15 months to find, design, construct, and move into our new offices, members of our Interiors | Special Projects [ISP] team got to work researching locations and amenities, budgeting and planning, and building out the space.
Project Manager Laura Ovsak checks out GLY's new space shortly after finishing interior demolition.
We set clear goals from the start to guide every decision and keep us on course. Greatest among these:
Our ambitions needed to fit not only within a reasonable price, but also a 1970s building with other tenants.
Cascade Yard is located in the Eastgate community of Bellevue, WA. One of its most attractive features? Lots of trees!
The process for our TI was the same as any GLY ISP project. We partnered with Weaver Architects, Prime Electric, Hermanson Mechanical, Patriot Fire Protection, Cochran, and the rest of the team in an integrated fashion, found win-win solutions, and built the job safely and efficiently.
Some choices were particularly impactful for budget, sustainability, and/or quality, beyond GLY’s standard practices such as a minimum 75% waste diversion. For example:
Our role as both builder and client was especially interesting, like stepping into our other clients' shoes literally instead of figuratively!
Open workspaces and private offices receive ample daylight. Employees enjoy views to the outside from nearly every location in the office.
The feature walls include large metal photo panels—one of the many pieces of furniture and accents carried over from the previous office.
In addition to nine bookable meeting rooms, employees can use the phone room or wellness room for quiet space or conversation.
The break area and kitchen connect to the large training room via glass operable walls, which open up for larger events.
The lobby features a large meeting table that we repurposed into a smaller coffee table.
The Bevi machine replaces disposable cans and bottles.
Many thanks to the hardworking team that made our vision a reality including:
