Function Meets Form

by David Conrads

SFP, an agricultural research and development firm, is  one of Kansas City's fastest-growing companies.  Yet until about a year ago the firm's small staff was crammed into a nondescript office in Belton, Missouri.  Most executives shared an office.  There was no conference room.  President and CEO Larry Sanders, a chemist and soil scientist, had to test products and perform experiments in the staff kitchen.  Prospective hires were interviewed offsite out of fear the company's headquarters would scare them away.

All that changed in January 2009 when SFP moved into a sleek, modern office in Park Place, a new mixed-use development in Leawood, Kansas.  Its 13,000 square feet of space is an eight-fold increase from the previous office and is large enough to house the company's present in-house staff of 16 with plenty of room for growth.  And Sanders can now do soil experiments and product tests in his office, where a sliding panel hides the sink and refrigerator.

"The main thing we wanted was an office that is easy to work in," says Melanie Acklin, SFP's director of marketing.  "Also we're a growing company, and we wanted a space we could gow into."

To call SFP a growing company is like calling Warren Buffet a successful investor.  Founded in 1998 as Specialty Fertilizer Products, the company was ranked No. 450 on Inc. magazine's 2008 list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the United States and No. 8 among fast-growing American manufacturing companies.  It posted sales growth of more than 4,300 percent between 2005 and 2008, making it by far Kansas City's fastest-growing company during that time.

The design of SFP's new space reflects the company's grounding in both agriculture and science, as well as its status as a high-tech, cutting-edge organization.  The company's agricultural roots are subtly reflected throughout the design.  The decor uses earth tones and wood in various, imaginative ways.  Even the color and pattern in the carpet is reminiscent of an abstracted wheat field.  The main interior wall and one in the boardroom are an organic shape inspired by the image of new crops uncurling as they come out of the ground.

"There was an agricultural bent to almost everything we did," says Jeremy Mittel, an interior designer with 360 Architecture and the lead designer of the SFP space.

Even though many elements of the interior are inspired by agriculture, the overall effect is anything but rustic - quite the opposite.  From the stylish reception area to the state-of-the-art conference room and from the modern, light-filled, open-office work area to the exposed ceiling over the full kitchen, the space speaks of a modern, leading-edge company.  In further indication of the SFP's success, some of the company's 70-or-so domestic and international patents are displayed near the reception area.

"For SFP the design of the space was largely about their brand and their image - who they are as a company," Mittel says.  "We had a lot more discussions about how they want to be portrayed to their guests and clients than [about] where the copier should go."

Nowhere is SFP's cutting-edge status better represented than in the new conference room.  The room is wired with an impressive Polycom video conferencing system that allows video conferencing in 1080p high definition.  Capable of displaying video from the Polycom system, cable television programming, digital signage and PC inputs is the conference room's enormous, 108-inch, flat-screen LCD television.  Made by Sharp, it is one of less than 10 such televisions that were sold in the United States - two of the groups can be found in the White House.  "It's about as trick as it gets," says Jake Sanders, SFP's vice president of market development.

An entire wall of the conference room was specially designed to accommodate the screen.  Two steel posts (running from floor to ceiling in the wall and bolted into the framework of the building) hold the 600-pound screen in place.  Decorative stonework surrounding it insulates the sound, keeping it from creeping into the CEO's office on the other side of the wall.  The conference table was custom designed and built by FCI, a furniture manufacturer in Chicago.

One of the more noteworthy spaces in the new SFP office is the training room, which will serve as the site for many product, research and educational training meetings - both for customers and the internal sales force.  The training room is designed to seat 20 comfortably but can hold almost 50 if necessary.  Completely modular, the space's tables, chairs and other furniture pieces can be reconfigured to accommodate just about any group or need.  One wall is decorated with one-inch "slices" of old barn boards, a characteristic that contributes to one of the best features of the space: It feels nothing like the sterile training room that is the norm in the corporate world.  Mittel says this room is his favorite part of the office.

Another area that is decidedly contrary to the norm is the full kitchen, which has already been used to feed 75 people.  The lounge area the kitchen flows into looks comfortable and homey as the recreation room of a suburban ranch house and fits very well with the family feel of this relatively small company.

"We like the open feel of the new office," Acklin says.  "It's a very warm, inviting space to be in.  It fits well with our culture - something we're really proud of."