BRIEFING PROFESSIONALS NAME HP EXECUTIVE CENTER BUILT BY TBI CONSTRUCTION BEST IN NATION

World Class Briefing Awards

CUPERTINO, CA– Briefing judges walked away from Hewlett-Packard’s new Executive Briefing Center convinced that better than any other in the nation it exemplifies an ability to tell the corporate story in a highly compelling and engaging manner. On behalf of the Association of Briefing Program Managers (ABPM), they awarded the project built by Toeniskoetter & Breeding, Inc. (TBI) Construction the 2002 trophy for best new or renovated center in the United States.

The judges described the Cupertino briefing center where Hewlett-Packard greets its shareholders, customers and world leaders as an “exciting, inspired, web-driven center.” The display, they wrote, “opens one’s eyes to the sophisticated technology, customer focus and core capabilities of today’s Hewlett-Packard Company.”

In full agreement was TBI Executive Vice President Dan Breeding, who oversaw the dramatic remodeling and expansion.

“Over a 10-month period, we replaced and expanded a briefing center that no longer projected Hewlett-Packard’s marketing goals,” Breeding said. “The EBC today symbolizes the integrated network of web-connected systems designed and maintained by HP e-services. With a raised floor providing easy access to cabling and electronics, the Briefing Center also demonstrates a great deal of flexibility, such as addressing the financial community about major corporate events. Hewlett-Packard has been able to successfully use the EBC for a wide variety of functions in addition to its primary goal of educating visiting executives.”

The Executive Briefing Center is located on the Cupertino campus of Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard. For 14 years, the company had showcased its computers and ancillary equipment there and introduced new products to the media. A large auditorium accommodated both company and shareholder meetings.

Starting in 1999, HP officials began what became more than a year of meetings with designers, architects and contractors to create an entirely new concept. It ultimately led to TBI Construction demolishing the entire interior of the Briefing Center, which occupies part of the first floor of a two-story research and design building. The project required structural rebuilding while work continued in surrounding areas, and a clean atmosphere was preserved for servers. The design by RMW Architecture & Interiors of San Francisco incorporated the old lobby into what became 38,000 square feet of meeting, public and display rooms. The project created a clear identity for the center by adding a new, glass-enclosed main lobby with skylight and a cobalt blue glass wall as an architectural element.

Today there are 14 meeting rooms, the largest for 180 people. Instead of being confined to a single briefing area, visitors now are encouraged to move between rooms, to interact with displays in an “Invent Center,” and to mingle with other visitors as well as HP employees in a café with garden patio. The focus of today’s Hewlett-Packard is as much on facilitating partnerships as on making sales.

Cheri Fraser of Ideo, the Palo Alto-based industrial design firm that styled the Apple Mouse, Palm V and Nike sunglasses, calls Hewlett-Packard’s new Executive Briefing Center “one of the most technically advanced in Silicon Valley.” Fraser headed Ideo’s San Francisco-based group of designers, architects and cultural anthropologists who designed the Briefing Center’s exhibits, recommended the presentation technology, and promoted the human interaction and flow.

“The EBC integrates Hewlett-Packard products with audio-visual components and interactive displays,” she said. “HP laptops manage HP servers, and laptop keyboards even control the lighting in each meeting room. Every activity can be monitored worldwide through the Internet.”

Principal Architect Robbin McDonald of RMW, which has designed many leading corporate briefing centers, says, “Whereas the old Briefing Center was designed to showcase HP equipment, the new one is designed for the technology to be invisible. The new Briefing Center demonstrates the company’s hardware, services, imbedded technology and appliances with a focus on invention.”

Visiting executives receive their own secure web sites and “Jornata” Personal Digital Assistants with which they can interact with displays and demonstrations. They can select and download data to their companies.

In addition to the challenges of demolition and construction in an occupied building, Breeding said the project required an extraordinary number of disparate pieces that had to fit perfectly.

McDonald’s design features French limestone exteriors, terrazzo marble floors and interior walls and features with stainless steel, aluminum and glass. Most of it required cutting and drilling at the factory to precise measurements. Many of the fixtures and architectural elements were manufactured by D & P Design of Lorton, Virginia, which assembled virtually the entire interior at its fabrication plant before breaking it down and shipping it west. Other products came from around the nation and Europe.

Breeding, meanwhile, invented some features on-site. For cosmetic reasons, he suggested Formica strips be attached with caulking around cosmetic holes in the café’s false ceiling to hide unsightly brackets. He also designed spring-loaded doorstops with ball bearings for the six-foot by 10-foot interior doors that swivel on center pins.

“This was a unique project with a lot of great spaces,” TBI President Chuck Toeniskoetter said. “It all came together, and it worked.”

“It’s put together like a Swiss watch,” Fraser added.

The fabric-covered panels in most briefing rooms actually came from Switzerland.

McDonald said her most satisfying moment was creating a design that accommodated the divergent views of numerous people, all of whom felt passionately about their goals.

In addition to the Executive Briefing Center, Toeniskoetter & Breeding, Inc. Construction has completed a number of other projects for Hewlett-Packard, including major renovation of the company’s world headquarters in Palo Alto. TBI also built the interiors for the Palo Alto headquarters of Agilent Technologies, which was spun off from Hewlett-Packard Co.

Founded in 1983, San Jose-based TBI Construction has completed more than $700 million in projects throughout the Bay Area. In addition to high-end professional offices, the company specializes in historical restoration and renovation, religious institutions, Multiple Prime Construction Management for public agencies and new buildings for TBI's own portfolio and for others.