FRESH DIGS

FRESH DIGS

BMO HARRIS OFFICES IN BMO TOWER

DEVELOPER: Irgens Partners LLC ARCHITECT: Stantec

CONTRACTOR: Pepper Construction COSTS: Undisclosed

YEAR COMPLETED: June 2020

BMO HARRIS moved into its new offices in the BMO Tower last summer. The bank could not have predicted it would be moving into its new digs amid a global pandemic, which has caused the office to be at below capacity ever since.

However, BMO leaders have a plan in place to bring back workers. Jud Snyder, BMO’s senior executive for southeastern Wisconsin, said the company has loosened a lot of its restrictions and is seeing more employees come into the office as time goes on. Each area of the business has its own plan, but most workers should be back by the fall.

BMO couldn’t ask for a better environment to entice workers to the office. Each floor has a large cafeteria space, along with places to collaborate or make private phone calls. There is also artwork made by local artists throughout the facility.

“When you look at the structure of the new office, there’s a ‘right to light’ concept, meaning all of the offices are in the interior, and all of our employees’ spaces are exterior near the floor-to-ceiling windows,” Snyder said. “Then there’s all of these collaborative spaces where people can go into a two-person huddle room, an eight-person conference room, a video (conferencing) room, (and) there’s all of this new technology that will help people work together.” n