Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • June 10, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Gregory Seay gseay@hartfordbusiness.com T ravelers Cos. executive Donna Grici has the workplace flexibility and comfort of 6,500 of her fellow downtown Hart- ford co-workers top of mind. After spending $55 million on major renovations to the exterior of its iconic Travelers Tower, outside plaza and parking garage, one of Hartford's largest private employers — if not the largest — is now in the midst of a major interior office-space makeover as the more than century-old property and casualty insurer tries to bring its workspaces into the 21st century. Renovations that include interior- space upgrades, along with new fur- nishings, office equipment and digital wiring and wireless interconnections, are currently wrapping up on the final floors of the Travelers Plaza Building, which adjoins the century-old Travel- ers Tower at 1 Tower Square. The company is also revamping its 51-year-old Windsor Street facility that once served as a data center. The interior upgrades, which began in 2017 and will be completed on its Hart- ford properties by late 2021, come only a few years after the company spent tens of millions of dollars on extensive renovations to its Travelers Tower, and redoing its outside patio area — now called Fishman Plaza after late executive chairman Jay Fishman who died in 2016 from ALS — to make it more welcoming to workers, customers and guests. "This is a Travelers-wide initiative,'' Grici, the company's second vice presi- dent for administrative services, said of the upgrades. The investment by Travelers is good news for Hartford because it signals the New York-based company is committed to its sizable downtown presence. In ad- dition to owning several buildings, Trav- elers also leases office space in a number of downtown properties, including State House Square and the Gold Building. At the end of 2018, Travelers was Hartford's second-largest taxpayer with $143.2 million in assessed real estate and personal property, city records show. As of Sept. 2018, it em- ployed about 7,400 Connecticut work- ers, most of whom work in the city, according to HBJ's Book of Lists. A pricetag for its latest office reno- vations wasn't disclosed. Meantime, Travelers isn't the only in- surance company that has given itself, or is planning, an interior facelift. The Hart- ford and Aetna Inc. in the last decade have spent untold sums remaking interi- ors at their Asylum Hill campuses, in the city's West End, while Cigna is preparing a $90 million renovation to its historic Wilde office building in Bloomfield. In 2011, Aetna wrapped a four-year- long, $220 million relocation of staff from its sprawling former 200-acre Middletown campus into its landmark, colonial-style Hartford headquarters building on Farmington Avenue, and its Atrium Building, at Farmington and Flower Street. Design collaboration Travelers collaborated with its realty adviser, CBRE, to redesign its interior office spaces, Grici said. But the first step was to survey Travelers employees about what they wanted their rede- signed spaces to look like. Indeed, the biggest hurdle to the makeover was getting employee buy- in, Grici said. "The biggest challenge is change, no matter how good things are,'' said Grici, a 10-year Travelers veteran whose background is in human resources. "Change is hard.'' The worker survey revealed, she said, a desire for more open work spaces flooded with more natural light. To accommodate that, Travelers' rede- sign pushed managers' offices and con- ference areas from the floor perimeter and windows toward the center. That al- lowed placement of more workstations by windows and more natural light. Travelers also reconfigured work- stations with movable desktops that rise or descend, depending whether workers want to work standing or seated. Twin-screen computer moni- tors ease eye and neck strain. Conference rooms now feature writeable "whiteboards'' and hands- free teleconferencing sets. Also installed on the workfloor are one- or two-person sized rooms called "phone booths" in which staffers can confer- ence with each other, or by telephone, without disrupting co-workers. Each floor also is equipped with a water station and unmanned canteen, which offers the typical assortment of snacks and soft drinks. Consumers pay digitally on the honor system. Many of the upgrades Travelers is adopting reflect the latest trends in office-space design, a number of which became popular on the West Coast, particularly in the tech haven of Silicon Valley, and have slowly made there way to the East Coast and Connecticut. In fact, more companies here — regardless of industry — are moving toward open floor plans and collabora- tive and flexible workspaces desired by Millennials and other next-generation workers, experts say. Christopher Ostop, managing direc- tor in national realty broker-adviser JLL's Hartford office, said the office- space upgrades the insurers and other tenants, large and small, undertake also reflect occupants' desire to get more production from less office space. "It's not just about jamming more Old Industry, New Look Travelers' Hartford space redo paces other insurers' interior makeovers Travelers Makeover Features of Travelers Cos.' downtown Hartford office redesign include: • Open, modern and vibrant office space with increased natural light. • Ergonomic sit/stand desks. • Adjustable single or dual monitors. • Multiple power outlets for laptops and ports to charge phones. • Storage drawers for business files and personal belongings, which double as a seat for visitors. • Enhanced technology that enables employees to quickly join conference calls and use soft phones. • Sound-masking systems to help minimize background noise and aid in concentration. • Meeting space options to satisfy the varying needs of employees, including: More collaborative spaces such as large conference rooms and smaller huddle areas as well as high- top tables, armchairs and cafes on each floor. • Private areas with individual seating and phone booths. Source: Travelers Cos. Travelers employees Soumitra Borthakur (left) and Patrick Todd inside a "phone booth'' in the insurer's Plaza office building in downtown Hartford. At right, more naturally lit open space, adjustable desktops and digital canteens on every floor are among amenities Travelers is installing as part of a major office-space upgrade. HBJ PHOTOS | STEVE LASCHEER FOCUS: Construction, Design & Architecture

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