When moving from a tired facility in Garforth to Thorpe Park, Leeds Hawkins approached three design and build companies to tender for their office move. The new office had to be in keeping with their other offices, yet maintain a Leeds identity. A key challenge was incorporating the wet and dry test labs within the office space, plus a highly cellular office space for the forensic consultants.

The chosen building was over two floors.
Ground Floor:
The open plan space was partitioned to create a welcome area, boardroom, wet and dry lab and several testing rooms. Glazed sections were used in the waiting area to give clients a glimpse into the lab facility so they had a feel for the forensic services provided, but the labs and testing rooms were fully secured by a door entry system. Our scope of works included converting a parking bay and landscaping part of the rear of the building so new entrance doors could be incorporated for deliveries. The wet lab had to be designed to hold water, so specialist flooring was used, installed half way up the perimeter walls, with no seams where water could gather. Mobile lab storage and a large mobile industrial sink were among the specialist lab kit supplied. Both the wet and dry lab also had ample perimeter trunking at desk high for ease of testing and away from water.

First Floor:
The Forensic Consultants needed quiet, confidential space to work. Offices were therefore positioned around the perimeter with the support team and resource services including printing, tea-point and breakout area located centrally. Care was taken when selecting furniture, with a particular focus on ergonomics and wellbeing, with many offices having sit-stand desks and care was taken to select a good quality task chair. A Leeds twist was developed with the client and involved the careful use of the branding colours on feature walls and furniture fittings.

Core Area:
The central core area was also refurbished, our scope of works included new flooring, lighting, decoration and conversion of a downstairs toilet into a shower room.