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Batir Architecture of St. Charles wins a new conference room

The Daily Herald Business Ledger has chosen Batir Architecture Ltd. of St. Charles as the winner of its Workplace Makeover contest.

The architectural firm will receive a conference room makeover valued at $12,000. The prize will be provided by Rieke Office Interiors of Elgin and Des Plaines Office Equipment of Elk Grove Village.

“We are thrilled to be selected as the Workplace Makeover contest grand prize winner,” stated Kristin Madden, designer and project manager at Batir Architecture. “When we saw the contest announced, we were almost embarrassed to advertise the state of our conference room, but we decided to give it a shot.

Batir will receive from Rieke Office Interiors a design consultation, conference table, ten conference room chairs, up to eight ceiling LED troffers with installation and up to 500 square feet of carpeting. The company will also receive a Sharp 60-inch commercial LED Smart television, a PTZ HD teleconference camera with noise canceling, a wireless computer for Power Point and installation and training from Des Plaines Office Equipment.

The winner was chosen from five finalists that were picked from about 60 entries.

Finalists will receive an office chair valued at $400 and design consultation to brainstorm solutions for their office challenges, both from Rieke Office Interiors, as well as a complimentary technology audit from Des Plaines Office Equipment.

Finalists include Tessendorf Mechanical Services of Gilberts, Red Caffeine of Lombard, Ahlbeck & Company of Des Plaines and Ala Carte Entertainment of Schaumburg.

The winning company does commercial tenant design work and designs data centers for other companies.

“Maybe this will inspire us to update the whole office,” Madden said. “Everyone here is very excited, including the owner, Paula Price. She is ecstatic. We are looking forward to a modern, technical look in the conference room with some pops of color, instead of the glorified sample library that our conference room has become with its mismatched furniture. ”

Madden has worked for Batir (which means “to build” in French) for 10 years and she can't remember a time when the conference room looked nice.

The sponsors of the contest will now educate the award winner. “This year we were especially anxious to teach the winners how to better utilize their collaboration spaces, using them more for cross-functional teams than for executive meetings. Today, companies are making that conference room much more productive, using it for training, cross-collaboration and traditional meetings, too,” said Mike Warren, Workplace Culture Consultant for Rieke Office Interiors.

“If you are holding a meeting or a training session, you want your people to get the most out of it. Otherwise, you are just wasting time,” added Victor Miceli, co-owner of Des Plaines Office Equipment. “By using modern technology you can save time and money by collaborating on documents more easily.”

You can also train people simultaneously around the world or make marketing presentations without getting on an airplane. “To use the modern buzz words, it is all about business development optimization so that you can do more with fewer resources,” Miceli added.

This summer the Ledger will publish photos of Batir's upgraded conference room.

Rieke Office Interiors in Elgin suggests something like this for Batir's conference room. Courtesy of Rieke
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