Power to the HUB
Windemuller helped execute a full renovation of a major insurance office in Grand Rapids, handling all new electrical work (power, lighting, and fire alarms) for the main floor. Completing the project in time to meet a tight deadline meant navigating around early design snafus and dealing with a delay in the delivery of unusual light fixtures from an overseas supplier.
Overview
HUB International Limited is an insurance brokerage with more than 375 offices across the United States and Canada. The company is the seventh largest insurance broker in the world and provides customers with a wide variety of services, including health, life, and property insurance.
In 2019, the HUB International Grand Rapids office was looking to execute a full renovation of its existing building. The goal was to create a beautiful new state-of-the-art workspace for all Grand Rapids HUB International team members. Windemuller was tasked with supplying new electrical components for all main floor needs, including all power, lighting, and fire alarm installations.
The Challenge
A tight timeframe and unique lighting fixtures, along with a few late-in-the-game design changes, were the big hurdles our team had to clear on this project. A miscommunication with a third-party designer meant that we had to re-do work when the design prints required changing. We also had to adjust our approach to move the entire IT room for the building from where it was in pre-demolition layout to where it would be in the new design. These factors added to the pressure of an already compressed project timeline.
Difficulty with unusual lighting fixtures, meanwhile, caused delays that meant our crew had to return to HUB International after the construction project was completed to finish our work. 21 of the fixtures were only available from an overseas supplier and did not arrive until a month after the project’s completion date. This delay required innovative problem-solving to make the space usable for the client as they waited for the final pieces of the puzzle.
The Solution
Early design snafus aside, our team was agile throughout this project and worked quickly to change direction when necessary. As a result, we were able to avoid considerable delays and still keep the project deadline for the majority of our work.
Knowing that most of the lighting fixtures for the space would be arriving late, we completed the project initially by installing a series of very nice temporary fixtures. Once the permanent fixtures arrived from overseas, we headed back to HUB International to swap out the temporary ones. Since we were doing the work after the office was already back up and running, we had to install all 21 fixtures on a single Saturday and work around furniture and other obstacles. Our crew kept a positive attitude and we ended up with great-looking installations and a very happy client.
