A five-story, carpeted circular staircase at Fortune Brands Innovations’ new global headquarters in Deerfield does more than help people get from floor to floor.
Producers of products like Moen Faucets and Master Lock, among many other well-known lines, Fortune Brands recently expanded its corporate headquarters from a smaller Deerfield location with 135 people to two midrise buildings where more than 1,000 people may eventually work.
Leigh Avsec, the company’s head of external affairs, said the staircase — there is one in each of the two buildings — is a place where unscheduled meetings of people from different departments within the organization take place. There is also an elevator.
“I have so many original conversations there,” Avsec said. “It creates good personal connections. It’s so much more personal and good for collaboration.,”
“A lot of conversations happen on the staircase,” added Jen Rataj, the senior director of corporate communications. “It’s a crossroads for collaboration.”
Fortune Brands moved into its new global corporate headquarters on Sept. 23 on Lake Cook Road in Deerfield, bringing people from its far-flung offices in the Midwest and beyond onto one corporate campus where corporate collaboration can flourish.
Though Fortune Brands was first headquartered in Deerfield in 2011, Avsec said locating the new campus in the village was no sure thing. A national search was launched as the company planned to go from a 135-person location to a place to house hundreds.
As locations were narrowed, Avsec said the Chicago area was the winner. Finding two large mid-rise buildings available on Lake Cook Road so close to the now former headquarters was a matter of good fortune.
“There are great schools, it’s close to Lake Michigan and accessible to downtown Chicago,” Avsec said. “It’s a very special place,” she added, noting the proximity to O’Hare International Airport, Interstate 94, and train connections.
A three-building campus, which once housed Takeda Pharmaceuticals International — it left for Boston six years ago — Fortune Brands is now housed in the easternmost structure and is getting the middle building ready for more members of its team. Amgen, Inc. occupies the third edifice.
On the ground floor of the middle building is a cafeteria with hot meals and a Starbucks coffee shop which the two companies share.
As people started relocating from elsewhere to Deerfield, Avsec said there are now 500 individuals working in the easternmost building, and 400 of them are new. By the end of next year, the number of workers could exceed 1,000.
Entering the campus, people will immediately see the design center to their right. Mark-Hans Richer, the company’s chief marketing officer, said the first thing anyone sees is “people working together, collaborating and innovating.”
Four video screens are on the first floor, giving people a glimpse of the company’s many and varied products. Richer is proud of a video showing Fiberon, a synthetic product similar to wood used to make decks on homes and other places.
“It uses 94% recycled materials,” Richer said. “No trees are cut down. It’s stronger than wood.”
Along with the design center, on the first floor of the easternmost building are common areas including a fitness center, a bowling alley, a lounge, a studio, and other common areas for the people who work on the campus.
The second, third, and fourth floors and devoted individually to the company’s three main product areas—outdoors, water, and security—while the fifth floor is devoted to core functions applying to all areas of the business.
Housed on the second floor are the outdoor products, including Therma-Tru Doors, Larson Doors, Fiberon, and several other entities offering residential door, window, glass structure and skylight needs.
On the third floor are the water products, which include Moen and more than 10 other faucets and other water-related home products. The fourth floor houses the security products which include Master Lock, Yale Lock, and Sentry Safe, among others.
