Located in Aurora, Illinois west of the Chicago area stands a historical facility for it's water supply and infrastructure pumps. Beginning in January and lasting for about 5 months I was tasked to assisting with designing the space in the North Aurora Mezzanine. Originally used in a document storage area above the entrance to the factory, the cleanup crewed worked the magic for us to working our magic into the space.
The challenge was to create a space that appealed to Pentair's brand, the factory with Aurora's history, and creating a space for training purposes. I worked in tandem with 3D exhibits (the production vendor for this process) to create a lively space that would appeal to these key factors. Complete with global branding graphics and messaging, a pump museum to show the legacy of commercial products, a timeline calling back to Aurora's history through key events and meeting spaces for training and events we created a space well recognized and recieved from leadership.
Space Design, Production and Project Co-Lead: Nick Christy
Space Rendering & Installation: 3D Exhibits
Kitchenette
The kitchenette and the main entrance for the Customer Center of Excellence were focused on Pentair's brand, consisting of recognizing the different brands throughout the whole company, the mission, vision, purpose statements, and the values while creating a comforting space for visitors, customers, and employees.
The Pump Exhibit: A Collection of Commercial Products Used in the Field
This space was focused on dedicating the history of commercial products from Aurora, Hydromatic, Fairbanks Nijhuis, and Myers that were used in the field. Messaging consisted of commercial values, including the use of recognizing these brands whose products are used for mission-critical applications protecting the People, Property, and the Planet.
Live Pump Space aka "Blue Pumps in Action"
A space for the pumps that runs the HVAC operations for the entire Aurora facility. This space was updated to show recognition to these hard-working pumps with messaging and existing signage that featured some of these pumps. Later in the timeline of developing the space, new pumps were installed with monitoring hardware that collected live data for each pump and showed it in a nearby display. The space was to also be used for education and training purposes too.
Training Room & Meeting Rooms Area - Exterior
The outside of this space was designed to share Pentair's values of Move, Improve, and Enjoy with areas of supporting legacy and training regarding pump assembly and repair. Neon signage was added to designate the training room space, aka the Pentair Pump Room and show off the legacy commercial brands before becoming part of the Pentair family.
Pentair Aurora Journey Timeline
In the same exterior space as the training room, above the factory view was a large graphic displaying a tribute and the history of the Aurora factory. This included significant events in Aurora's history, including the integration of Aurora being part of Pentair and the construction of the Customer Center of Excellence.
Pentair Pump Room & Meeting Rooms
The training room consisted of dedicating the space to feature the commercial product brands, the commercial commemorative icon with a description of how the team is represented (a case study for that can be found here), and the flow branch of Pentair. Originally going to be a regional map, it was later updated to better represent the flow branch with a magnetic board that would have pinpoints in the locations for each location. The posters were also updated to represent each branch of Flow for the residential, commercial, and industrial solutions categories (not pictured here).
The large conference room had included the commercial commemorative icon and aerial shots of the different commercial facilities around the world. More aerial shot posters were added at a later date post the production of the space.
Before and After Shots of the Customer Center of Excellence
