Ball Horticultural Company Global Headquarters

The Featherstone Difference

Anna Ball serves on the Board of The Morton Arboretum and respected all that Featherstone had done for that organization in bringing more value for donor dollars to TMA’s development program. Her own historied, family business was anticipating a major renovation project at their international headquarters, in addition to a large, new laboratory facility. They desperately needed office and laboratory upgrades, but at the same time they needed to maintain their research program and business operations.

Featherstone brought their ability to phase and transform a seemingly chaotic construction, program into an organized progression of perfectly sequenced activities. The building itself was a collection of additions and merges, dating back to the 1920’s. Knitting together the rebuilding and replacement of major systems and exterior treatments, combined with the repurposing of the back-of-house production facilities, proved to be an extremely challenging “upgrade” project. Once at schematic design, however, the building schedule was developed. The plan allowed for swing space at each phase of the construction program to accommodate temporarily displaced personnel while breaking down the overall schedule into four functional phases.