This breathtaking steel and glass design – with its floating cube-shaped atrium – holds clients and associates in suspense, literally and figuratively.

Fiserv – a leading financial services technology company –consolidated its Atlanta operations into one expansive campus. In this stunning showcase created by tvsdesign and SYKES Consulting, a new 8,000 SF central lobby appears to float between two newly renovated six-floor office buildings.

Walk up to this lofty atrium, which follows the square geometry of Fiserv’s proofpoint® brand, and you’ll see another box floating within it: the Client Experience Center, which hangs suspended from the top of the building. Visible 56 feet up from the lobby floor, this sleek presentation and meeting space is also supported by an airy yet robust series of Pratt trusses tied in to columns at the building’s fifth floor. At the second, third and fourth floors, elevated walkways with balconies overlooking the vast lobby also connect associates and guests to all six floors of the adjoining office buildings.

SYKES delivered highly creative engineering to meet the aesthetic, cost and structural demands of the project.

• Instead of traditional glass framing, exposed structural steel inset with glass mullions was suspended from the rooflines down and braced at key points to the atrium’s perimeter columns. This lightweight system significantly reduced building loads and costs.
• The two existing façades were re-clad in this AESS/glass system. Cantilevered glass fins and the lack of ground anchoring add to the free-floating affect.
• Special connections were created for the highly visible trusses supporting the lobby’s fifth floor. Thin steel rods replaced the usual double, diagonal supports at the truss-to-column connections, and all bolts were ground to a smooth polish to enhance the sleek look.
• Foundation work was especially challenging and required the use of special equipment and new off-center footings and grade beams to reinforce (and work around) the existing structure and footings.
• Interior spaces were extensively reworked – from the demolition of the original canopy and pedestrian bridge connecting the top floors of the existing buildings to the installation of the cafeteria’s new skylights and more open plan.

Further renovations include updated bathrooms, high-end elevator lobby finishes, and new communal and individual work spaces on each floor. Modular workstations and banquette seating surround the building’s core, where glass wall systems enclose interior offices and meeting rooms. Other amenities include a 10,000 SF fitness center, 10,000 SF commercial kitchen and dining room, and a 2,500 SF coffee bar and micro-mart.

SYKES provided construction administration and oversight throughout the project’s super-fast track, six-month delivery.