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April 25, 2008
BLACKHAWK! Products Group™ New Headquarters Wins 2008 Award of Design Excellence From the American Institute of Architects
NORFOLK, VA - The design of the new BLACKHAWK! headquarters has won the Design Excellence for Interiors Award. The award was presented to BLACKHAWK!’s architect, HBA Architecture & Interior Design, Inc., of Virginia Beach, by the American Institute of Architects, Hampton Roads. The BLACKHAWK! project consisted of designing a 65,000 square foot, 3.5 story corporate headquarters reflecting the roots of the company and its philosophy of integrity, quality, and innovation. The HBA Design Team incorporated iconic design elements to reflect the founder’s background and mission. At the top of the 3.5 story entrance, a curved roof recalls the curvature of a parachute, with the supporting structural struts mimicking the shrouds of a parachute.
“We worked hand-in-hand with HBA, the Norfolk City Economic Development Office, and Mid-Eastern Builders to create what we felt was a very state-of-the-art, modern, and efficient work environment for our employees,” Mike Noell, BLACKHAWK! founder and President and CEO, commented. “Our corporate HQ facility effectively represents our business philosophy and our company’s quality vision with a very open floor design with lots of natural lighting providing all the employees with a window view from anywhere in the building. This has been a great experience to be able to design and build our vision for the future and we are very happy to be moved in and focused on the future. This is our fifth move in fifteen years and now we finally have room to grow.”
“All great architecture requires a great client, and Mike Noell was very clear and concise with his building requirement, and then gave me the freedom to interpret that in a way that has gained the recognition bestowed upon it by the American Institute of Architects in awarding their Award of Design Excellence,” David L. May, Jr., AIA, HBA’s Architect of record for BLACKHAWK! headquarters, added. “I designed it with a multi-layered concept that reveals itself a little more each time you visit the building.”
Stepping between the massive buttresses through the entrance vestibule into the Lobby, a visitor cannot help but look at the copper sheathed ‘dragon skin’ wall behind the reception area or the polished “Blue Pearl” granite flooring. The lobby walls slope outward at the same angle as the exterior stone buttresses. The technique architect David May used he calls “inverse trompe l’oeil,” in which the sloping walls with the progressively smaller spacing to the glass wall mullions; the converging sidewalls and the gently rising floor all give the visitor a sense of the Lobby being larger than it actually is. The Lobby instantly defines the company’s philosophy founded on a solid base reaching skyward towards the future. A glass bridge stretches across the lobby. Its transparent glass railing provides the visitor with a bird’s eye view complete with the feeling of floating on air! The Bistro not only provides healthy breakfasts and lunches for the BLACKHAWK! team on-the-go, but features a ceiling of naturalistic clouds with subtle lighting. A first-rate fitness room complete with men’s and women’s showers and dressing rooms on the first floor adds to the comfort and care for BLACKHAWK! employees.
The fourth floor Mezzanine’s soaring metallic ceiling is arched to provide visitors with spacious room for meetings or business dining with a balcony and an exquisite view from the top of BLACKHAWK! headquarters.
“Mike Noell simply told me that he wanted his headquarters to, ‘reflect the strength and ruggedness of his products,” David May summarized, “And with that vision in mind, I designed the BLACKHAWK! headquarters to pay homage to their roots and reflect their growing future.”
About BLACKHAWK!®
BLACKHAWK! Products Group™, founded in 1993 by President and CEO Mike Noell, is a leading US manufacturer of tactical, military and law enforcement equipment. BLACKHAWK! is a global manufacturer of tactical gear, body armor, law enforcement duty gear, holsters, hydration systems, protective gloves and gear, apparel and footwear, knives, illumination tools, breaching tools, hunting gear, and recoil reducing stocks. BLACKHAWK! headquarters is in Norfolk, Virginia, with US manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, Montana, and Idaho. For more information on BLACKHAWK! and BLACKHAWK! products, log on to www.BLACKHAWK.com or call 800-694-5263.
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