This building is the new world headquarters for Chatham Financial Services, an international firm that specializes in Financial Risk and Hedging. It is equipped to handle their huge volume of immediate information. It is located in Kennett Square, PA on an old eleven-acre farm, complete with stone farmhouse and pond. The Owners wanted their new office building to blend into this rural area outside of Philadelphia. Paul Sgroi of Bernardon Haber Holloway Architects designed the building to resemble a barn, including a timber frame ceiling and a silo on the end. Paul Risk Associates, Inc. was selected as the General Contractor for this Design/Bid project.
The building is three stories with 26,615 square feet. The walkout lower level contains the staff cafeteria, a training room, and data rooms. The main floor is the heart of the building, providing workspace for 100 employees engaged in money management worldwide. Each workstation is wired for Tele/Data/Audio/Visual Technology with multiple computers, phones, and Internet connections. The mezzanine level houses executive offices. The concrete silo is an executive conference room and catering kitchen.
The foundation of this new building is wall and spread footings with Ivany block retaining walls. Structural steel and slab on deck frame the building. Exterior walls are block and metal studs with cast stone veneer and Hardie plank siding. The interior walls are metal studs and drywall. The beautiful timber frame and steel turnbuckle roof system is a major focal point of the building and is highlighted by the flags from the different countries of the Chatham Financial workforce. A standing seam metal roof was chosen for this project to reinforce the “barn” look.
To heat and cool this unique building, a Mitsubishi City Multi system was selected to provide the Owner with the 32 heating and cooling control points they desired. The raised floor area was used to distribute air to the large open office area, concealing ductwork and providing an even temperature throughout the area by allowing the Chatham employees manual volume control of floor grilles at their cubicles. The lighting throughout the main floor is specially designed to come from the timber frame ceiling area since the Owner did not want task lighting in this area.
Site work for this project included underground water detention and reworking the existing farm pond. A boulder retaining wall was used to raise the grade for the driveway. A Design/Build cast-in-place bridge was used to finish the driveway.
On-site amenities for the employees include a cafeteria, an outdoor picnic area and playground for family visits and an onsite fitness area in the adjacent farmhouse.