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Your First Look at RadioShack Inside!


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#1 John T Roberts

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Posted 26 May 2004 - 09:08 PM

The Fort Worth Chapter of the American Institute of Architects held its May meeting at the RadioShack Corporate Campus. I thought I would share some of my pictures with you. I know it is a little rough, but you can at least see what some of the important spaces look like. RadioShack is scheduled to start moving in during the last part of September.

The Rotunda - Main Entrance to facility:
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Looking up to the top of the Rotunda:
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Lobby:
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Grand Stair:
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Looking outside from Commons Building:
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Dining Room - This is the two story space that we were commenting on when the building columns were being poured:
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End of Dining Room:
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Looking back toward building core in Dining Room:
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Retail Store from 7th Floor:
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Looking west and down toward RadioShack Circle from 7th Floor:
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Main Entry & Rotunda from 7th Floor:
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Two Story corner on 7th Floor:
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Another view of the two story corner:
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Upper Level of connecting bridge:
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Looking down on the Dining Room:
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Main Corridor in Commons Building from 2nd Floor:
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#2 ghughes

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Posted 26 May 2004 - 09:19 PM

Thanks for posting those, John. They are fun to look at and to start the imagination running toward the grand opening.

#3 John T Roberts

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Posted 26 May 2004 - 09:57 PM

Yes, they are fun to look at. It will be interesting to see what it looks like at the grand opening. There is still all of the finish site work and the retail building left. The framing for the retail building looks very interesting. I will continue posting the construction pictures on the web site with more emphasis on the site work and retail building.

#4 jefffwd

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Posted 27 May 2004 - 08:54 AM

John,

Any chance once it is finished that they might have an "open house" for the general public? OR maybe a special tour for forum members??? That would be awesome. Pier 1 and The Tower too!!! :P

#5 gcarey

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Posted 27 May 2004 - 10:29 AM

Wow John, those are great photos. Thanks for sharing them.

#6 360texas

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Posted 27 May 2004 - 12:26 PM

Thanks John, exceptionally well done photos. It appears that the structure is beginning to take on some character.

Some of the forum members that have been to our site probably are familiar with the full sphere panoramas. The Rotunda - Main Entrance to facility appears to be a great spot for such a panorama.

If Radioshack lets us take a 'before' facility dedication tour and is agreeable for that Rotunda photoshoot location, I would be glad to take the image and give them a copy on CD-R. I would even help them put it on their RS website. Then of course we would need to UPdate Johns Architecture in Downtown Fort Worth website too.

Just hollar when you are ready.

Dave

Dave still at

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#7 mosteijn

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Posted 27 May 2004 - 12:58 PM

Thanks for the tour, John. It's turning out to be a very beautiful campus (despite it's suburban-ness). I especially like the dining room, I wish I could enjoy lunch in such a nice space.

#8 John T Roberts

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Posted 27 May 2004 - 06:50 PM

The dining room and the rotunda were my favorite spaces. We did walk through the office floors and they were very typical and completely open. Every worker will have a cubicle. The building has a raised floor system. This allows HVAC, electrical, communications, data, and all building utilities to be routed between the concrete slab and the finished floor level. Access is easy because the carpet and floor panels are removed to add, repair, remove, or change services.

#9 Thurman52

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Posted 30 September 2004 - 08:30 PM

For those not keeping up, serious progress is being made and many RS employees move this weekend, but the official opening is Oct 8. 250 employees per weeekend will move. A brief break for the holidays and then restart in January.

Construction on Building C will continue through this year. The RS Store will be completed sometime about that time too.

The Commons and Building A annd B should be virtually finished. Landscaping on all sides of the campus is very lush. The roads are almost all completed and the stoplights on Henderson and Belknap are up and running.. argh!

#10 John T Roberts

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Posted 30 September 2004 - 08:33 PM

I had to pass through those stop lights today when they were operating. I realize that they will be needed, but it always seems like we are adding more of them on a daily basis.

The project is looking nice and I do have a few new photgraphs on the building page.

#11 Redshirt

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Posted 11 October 2004 - 04:55 AM

Posted on Mon, Oct. 11, 2004

RadioShack learning to open up

By Heather Landy

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH - Of all the concerns RadioShack employees have had about moving from a traditional high-rise to a modern campus with an open floor plan -- How will I cope with the noise? Can I still take a personal phone call? Will the smell of my co-workers' tuna sandwiches drift into my work space? -- perhaps none has wreaked more psychological havoc than the prospect of being stuck in a cubicle.

Almost everyone, including senior executives, will lose the four-walls-and-a-door setup that tells their colleagues, "I have arrived." Sleek gray file cabinets and portable dividers are the only barriers between co-workers at the company's new downtown headquarters. Even the in-house lawyers -- who, it has been determined, need privacy from other departments but not from one another -- will enter the brave new world of open space. For some, the transition will not be easy.

"I think there's just sort of a stigma that goes with having a cube -- that it means you're not as important as people who have an office," said Karen Welninski, a nine-year employee who lost her office. "I thought: 'If I'm in a cube, where does that put me? At the bottom of the totem pole?' "

But with nearly everyone relegated to cubicles, RadioShack's sense of corporate hierarchy is being turned on its head.

Welninski said she developed a sunnier outlook on the cubicle situation after spending time in the IdeaLab, an 8,000-square-foot model of the new office space. RadioShack built the replica at its soon-to-be-vacated Charles D. Tandy Center headquarters and conducted tours to give employees a sneak peek at their new digs.

Welninski's department, visual merchandising, was sent to work in the lab for almost a year to help the company see how employees would use the new space day-to-day. They tested high-tech conference rooms, a beautiful kitchen, inviting lounge areas and, of course, the cubicles.

Cubicles and common areas that encourage collaboration are popular now in office design, according to John Niesen, director of interior architecture at HDR Architecture in Dallas.

"If a company is trying to promote inter-office communication or be more transparent to their clients, these are physical manifestations of how an organization can play those efforts out," Niesen said. "Designers sometimes translate words and mission statements into architectural terms."

He also speculates that the need for easy technological updates has fueled the rise of cubicles. RadioShack's new campus and the new Pier 1 Imports tower nearby have raised floors that hide phone lines, computer cables and wiring for the heating and cooling systems. It is easier to fix, reroute or upgrade the equipment when there are no office doors or bolted-down desks in the way.

For RadioShack, which wanted to move away from a closed-door environment in a 1970s-era building, the low-rise, open-space campus was an obvious answer, company executives say. More than 2,000 corporate employees will relocate to the campus in shifts through the end of February.

Most of the cubicles at the new campus measure 8 feet by 8 feet. Some are 8 feet by 16 feet to accommodate side tables and chairs for staffers who often hold small meetings. There will be a handful of enclosed offices, mainly for human resources officials whose jobs demand strict confidentiality. There also will be several enclosed rooms where employees can find privacy for activities like conferences with a superior or phone calls to a doctor.

Mostly, employees will be encouraged to interact in the common areas. The lounges, for example, allow wireless Internet connections so employees can work on a laptop computer while relaxing on a couch.

"It's kind of like a house. Everyone has their own bedroom, but you spend most of your time in the kitchen or the living room," said Tim Abbott, one of two human resources specialists assigned to help employees make the transition to the new work environment.

For the visual merchandising team that tested the IdeaLab, the format promoted conversation and helped bring the department together, said Lucy Wickersham, who has worked in the department for a year.

"We're all friends. We know about each other's families," she said.

All the chatter may bother some people, but at 23, Wickersham represents what office designers see as a generation hard-wired for open environments.

"I'll be doing e-mails, working on graphics and talking on the phone at the same time," said Wickersham, who designs instruction booklets that show RadioShack store managers how to arrange their merchandise. "If it's not like that, I can't work."

A few cubicles over, Welninski, 31, had to work a bit harder to adjust. But she said she has grown accustomed to the busy surroundings and is bouncing back from the initial ego blow of being assigned to a cubicle.

"I'm getting over it," Welninski said. "It took a month or two, but I'm getting over it."


There are two pictures at http://www.dfw.com/m.../9890327.htm?1c

#12 Thurman52

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Posted 26 October 2004 - 09:06 AM

They are constructing the Taylor Street extension down to the river and cul-de-sac this week.

#13 Thurman52

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Posted 03 November 2004 - 09:19 PM

The cul-de-sac includes head in parking for the Trinity Trails.

Anyone seen the fountain lit up at night? I hear it pretty nice.

#14 John T Roberts

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Posted 03 November 2004 - 09:49 PM

Yes, I have and a couple of weeks ago, I took pictures. I haven't posted them yet, because they aren't the best. After the symposium, a few of us walked down to take a look.

#15 mosteijn

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Posted 03 November 2004 - 09:59 PM

So the fountain IS running, great news! Thanks for clearing that up.

#16 John T Roberts

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Posted 03 November 2004 - 10:11 PM

It operated for a few days around the first move in, then it was turned off for some kind of repairs. They were turned on about one week later.

#17 lobster

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Posted 15 November 2004 - 12:40 AM

Greets again :cry: ..

John, as i have been back from my honeymoon for months now, I will keep with my promise I made to you on the corner of Throck & 3rd and post some Tower pics.. (I'll find an appropriate relevant post to do that at) But first! Great shots you have of the RS construction .. to complement those, I have some great (approved) shots of the interior of the new RS campus since its opening incase y'all fine folks were interested:

dining hall:
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seventh floor of the "East Fork" building (what's under those funky overhangs you see from the outside)
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EF 3rd floor coffee lounge
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not meaning to have a shameless plug, but to not flood your posts with huge pictures, the rest can be seen at downtownfortworth.com/story-movingin.asp

cheers!
lobsta

#18 John T Roberts

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Posted 15 November 2004 - 08:43 PM

The finished product looks really nice. Thanks for posting these.




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