Branching Out: Basement Systems Innovation in Office Design Profiled

The New Haven Register recently profiled Basement Systems' innovative office renovation for its Internet marketing group. The treehouse theme solved a problem when space became tight for the growing company and at the same time offered a unique working environment.

When Basement Systems’ Internet department recently reached capacity on its 2,500-square-foot office space, it seemed the company would have to redesign the work area with cubicles to allow the department to expand.

But cubicles were a foreign concept to the basement waterproofing company, whose 92,000-square-foot corporate headquarters is on Silvermine Road.

“We have very few cubicles,” said Dan Fitzgerald, director of marketing. “It’s open space, very creative, environmentally friendly for people enjoying coming to work every day.”

So owner Larry Janesky thought outside the box. Expanding on a concept he’d seen in his son’s teacher’s office, Janesky designed a treehouse-style space for the rapidly expanding Internet department. The result was shown to the public this week.

Basement Systems employees contributed their various talents to the project and collectively redesigned the space in three weeks, working seven days a week.

The work stations were built out of white pine, which came from a lumberyard in upstate New York. Trees from the Basement Systems property and other items found in the woods were also used in the project.

Janesky brought in antique wood, wagon wheels, antlers and tin roofing he’d saved from an old horse barn on his property that had been torn down a few years ago. And Janesky’s brother, a mural artist, worked with artists on staff to create forest murals on all the walls “to really give it the feeling of being in the woods,” said Fitzgerald.

"The reason we have a growing Internet team in today’s market is that we design, optimize and manage 125 Web sites for our dealers from coast to coast. That’s growing all the time, we’re always adding more sites,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald added that a creative workspace is crucial to attracting “top talent” to work for the company’s Internet department. For now, the department is the envy of all the other departments.

"All the other people in the company want to work back there,” said Fitzgerald.

Read the original article by Lauren Garrison, from New Haven Register: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/02/13/business/d1-_treehouse13.txt