Mesirow Financial’s new 45-story office building contains the firm’s corporate headquarters, filling floors 4 through 17. The elegant architecture is complemented by near-invisible technology infrastructure, linked through an extensive IT network. Each of the building’s conference rooms includes extensive audio, video, video conferencing and networking technology, all integrated through a central room-reservation system and touch-panel control interfaces. Mesirow’s new headquarters reflects a new standard in sustainability, achieving LEED Gold certification.
The greatest concentration of audio video systems is in the fourth-floor meeting and conference center, ranging from small private client meeting rooms to a large boardroom. Some meeting rooms are optimized specifically for video conferencing. The project also includes a powerful and flexible Network Operations Center and AV systems in employee break areas.
Each office floor has a sound-masking system to ensure greater privacy for sensitive communications both in open office areas and among offices. This unobtrusive system has a high level of local control so that each area of the project receives the appropriate level of masking.
Kirkegaard also provided noise control services and the acoustic design for the conference center. Because it is located just above the building’s main mechanical room, holding background noise to an acceptable level took particular care. The conference rooms were carefully arranged to ensure that speech and presentations in one room cannot be overheard in the next, and carefully finished so that communication within each room is clear and easy for all.
The final piece of this project is the multi-purpose James C. Tyree Auditorium that supports all manner of presentations, performances, meetings and training sessions. Its sophisticated processed column loudspeakers control the dispersion of sound and, along with window treatments, are critical in minimizing confusing reflections from a concave glass rear wall.
