Congratulations to Aldi Corporation on the completion of their national IT interior office build-out in Aurora, Illinois. Aldi held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly-renovated facility on Friday, February 17. FGM’s project team was invited to attend the ceremony along with members of Aldi’s National IT Group, the City of Aurora and our partner team members from A M King, KDI Design and McGuire Engineers.
Aldi is currently expanding and growing significantly as a company. FGM Architects’ on-going work at Aldi’s corporate headquarters location in Batavia lead to the relocation of their national IT department to the Aurora site to alleviate overcrowding. The fast-paced renovation of the existing 1980s office building took place over the course of 2016, allowing Aldi’s IT department to move into the new facility in January of this year.
At the ceremony, Aldi expressed how pleased they are with the new space, noting FGM’s new and innovative design approach with the company, and the extremely positive reaction from employees both at the Aurora location and throughout the entire company. The City of Aurora also expressed enthusiasm for the facility, offering Aldi a warm welcome. Aurora looks forward to building upon their partnership with Aldi in the near and distant future.
The project presented many challenges including dated infrastructure, dated envelope technology and the existing structural layout. The entire 82,000 sf facility was renovated, leaving just the existing shell (with upgrades for energy and waterproofing), existing structural frame and the building core containing the elevators, stairways, toilet rooms and electrical rooms. This complete overhaul allowed the design and construction team to work with Aldi to create the ideal working environment for their IT team, incorporating the latest corporate design strategies and technology.
The new space includes a 4,000 sf work café (an entirely new concept for the company), open office space with adjustable furniture, collaboration rooms of varying sizes with varying technology and collaborative break rooms on each floor. In addition, the renovation features high-tech conference and training rooms as well as a high-powered server room with a high-tech backup power system (including a generator).