Liberty Mutual, Dover West Offices Corridors & Lobby Spaces
Dover, MA

Project Strategy

Allegheny Contract has been furnishing and installing flooring for many years at various office locations for Liberty Mutual.  In December of 2020, Liberty Mutual reached out with a large Fast Track project, without a design firm involved.  At the time, Liberty Mutual was planning to re-open their office at the beginning of April 2021, just over one year after closing due to the pandemic.  They asked us to work with them to help spruce up the space using carpet tiles and new base to welcome their employees to a newly renovated space when they returned.  The goal was to enhance the existing space and make it look more current while keeping the very old systems furniture in place.  
 
Within days we had narrowed it down to just a few options in the Milliken line, ordered dozens of plank samples, and made the drive to the New Hampshire campus.  An in-person meeting was held at the Dover West location.  We showed some options in each style and colorway that the client was interested in seeing.  We photographed the different parts of the space and dropped in the patterns using Milliken’s Visualizer tool (My Room Scene) on their website.  It was very helpful to have this valuable tool and the client was extremely impressed with how realistic the images of the flooring looked when digitally dropped into their space.  This helped us to make decisions in a matter of weeks and move forward with placing an order for the corridor carpet to get the project moving.  Ultimately the client chose Color Field Patina which in the colorway they chose resembles the bark of a birch tree.  The building is surrounded by forest - the client loved the tie to nature and the idea of bringing the outdoors in.  
 
We then focused on the accent carpet for the lobby spaces. Liberty wanted to change the pattern or colorway on each floor as way-finding for their employees.  The building is quite large and there are two massive wings branching from either side of the elevator lobby on floors 2, 3, and 4.  The wall across from the elevator on each floor has a unique glass artwork installation varying in theme and color.  The Liberty team loved Milliken Edge Lit and we designed a way to use that modern pattern as well as tie it into the artwork to use the different colors for way-finding.  
 
We were able to use running-line patterns that had bright accent colors that worked well with each of the wall sculptures.  We used a different colorway of Edge Lit on each floor based on the color of the artwork on that level.  Again, the visualizer was extremely helpful in determining what the client liked and did not like.  It helped them to see our vision for the space.  Once they could see it, they really loved it!  By Christmas we ordered all 30,000 square yards of carpet planks for this project and the installation was completed on St. Patrick’s Day.  It was a very compressed time frame!  With collaboration, creative vision, and teamwork all around, this beautiful project was completed on time as well as within budget!  

Unique Installation Challenge Strategy

To begin, we were contacted by Liberty Mutual at the beginning of December and needed to complete the project by the third week of March that following year.  This gave us 3 1/2 months to design, order and install the flooring.  We had to consider the timing as well as the schedule of the mill shut down for the holidays.  In addition, we also had to remove the existing carpeting from the entire space, palletize it and send it back to that mill for recycling. This was no small feat-removing 30,000sy of carpet and installing 30,000sy of new carpet.  
 
This building not only has many curved walls to have to install against, but it has hundreds and hundreds of old systems furniture sitting on tens of thousands of yards of carpet tile which needed to be updated. We used our LIFT System to remove all of the existing carpet tiles and replace them with Milliken TractionBack, pre-applied adhesive-backed cushioned carpet planks.  This saved us the step of having to apply adhesive under the systems furniture, wait for it to tack up and then go back and install the planks.  To add to the fun, we also had hundreds of raised access HVAC floor vents that we had to install around every few feet which made installation rates much slower than typical. Fortunately, we worked together as a team and were able to overcome all these challenges and met our client’s deadline and left them extremely happy.