Ikea's new center is a reflection of its philosophy

The one thing that strikes you about Ikea's new North America Service Center in Conshohocken is how

uncorporate

it is.

Colorful, comfortable and homey - in a birch-veneer Ikea way, of course.

Three levels high, 75,000 square feet of light concrete and glass, the building has most of the same design features as the big-box Ikea store next door, and it's furnished with the stuff of the international home-furnishings chain's catalog - except for the bedroom accoutrements. Still, there are showers in the ground-floor restrooms if an employee needs one after a trip. And there's a large cloakroom behind the reception area in the lobby where luggage can be stored.

Since its beginnings in Sweden in 1943, Ikea's marketing has emphasized functional, attractive and simple design.

So, by design, the service center (also known as the home office) is a reflection of that - from the bookcases stacked three stories along one wall of the main stairwell atrium to the floor-to-ceiling fabrics that hang along the window walls.

The structure - which is awaiting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council - was a "collaborative" effort of Ikea architects and designers and Cathers & Associates Inc. of Berwyn.

"It was important to showcase Ikea products and their variety, scale and function" throughout the building, says William G. Kerbs, managing principal at Cathers.

The interior's retail-store look is intentional, says Nils Ankarcrona, Ikea's senior architect, who designs stores and works from a plan based on the company's original thinking, with modifications over the years.

About 300 employees began moving into the new service center on Alan Wood Road in November. It replaces the corporate offices at Plymouth Meeting Mall, where Ikea's first U.S. store opened in 1985.

Yet, unlike the stores, there is no "ball room" here - a favorite of generations of children of Ikea shoppers.

"That's a good suggestion," says Mona Astra Liss, the corporate public-relations director. "It would be a good place to relieve stress."

Stress is one thing Ikea tries to keep to a minimum, though Liss acknowledges that sales targets and perpetual expansion - 29 U.S. stores, three to four more each year until 2011 - do create some.

Should there be a problem, employees can find North America services president Pernille Spiers-Lopez in the work space right next to the window at the end of the new building's second floor.

Her space looks like everyone else's: An open, cubicle-free floor plan is designed so that everybody's work area is furnished the same way.

"We teamed to create and furnish a home office that makes life at work like life at home," Spiers-Lopez says.

A white-noise machine helps make the open floor plan possible.

"If I want to talk with my neighbor, I have to get up and walk to his desk to do so," Liss says. "It works really well."

Employee work spaces are furnished with Ikea furniture - desks and file cabinets are the familiar clear-lacquered birch veneer, and the chairs are ergonomically designed.

Making changes is OK, but only after employees give things a chance - two months for workers to get acquainted with their offices, three months for the work space to get to know the employee.

"My desk is a mess," Liss says, though it didn't look that way by typical office standards.

The design of both Ikea's stores and its headquarters reflects the Swedish socialism of founder Ingvar Kamprad, who still flies around the world in coach class, Liss says.

"This is not just a state-of-the-art building, but it is a reflection of the Ikea culture," she says. "It is what we live and breathe every day."

Those values are reflected in slogans written on the walls and at room entrances. They wouldn't play well in most corporate offices - "Start a revolution today," "Break the rules," "No hierarchy" - but they exemplify "a workplace that embraces our 'We are equal' organization," Spiers-Lopez says.

Gathering spaces are located throughout the building. The second-floor "great room" is just that - a large, well-equipped kitchen with Ikea's new stainless-steel appliance line and a living-room area.

There are 17 large, high-tech conference rooms (named for some of the 34 countries where Ikea has its stores), and 10-foot-by-10-foot "huddle rooms" are scattered throughout the building for quick, small meetings.

These huddle rooms are painted in brilliant Ikea colors - yellow, blue, orange, green - and are named for them. Lights are controlled by sensors in the doors.

On each floor, lights turn off as work areas empty out for the day. If an employee stays late, just the lighting in his or her area remains on.

The building temperature is automatically kept between 71 and 75 degrees, Liss says. Materials and construction techniques promote indoor air quality. Carpeting is made of natural fibers.

"Environmental concerns are nothing new to the company," Liss says. "We use the tops of birch trees for furniture that others throw away. We only use lumber from sustainable forests. We have 233 parking spaces, with 12 for carpools and 12 more for fuel-efficient vehicles and motorcycles."

The large, first-floor photocopying room even has a recycling center. And color copying is discouraged as wasteful.

The service center seems to have everything you associate with Ikea, except for one thing: an Allen wrench.

"I'm certain there is one on site," Liss says. "We do assemble our own furniture."