Boeing

The Boeing Company began operations on schedule today at its new world headquarters building in downtown Chicago.

Approximately 200 employees began unpacking and familiarizing themselves with the building, located on the Chicago River at 100 North Riverside. The company expects approximately 400 employees to be working on the building's top 12 floors by the end of the year.

Boeing and a team of more than 70 subcontractors, vendors and consultants delivered the finished office space, sophisticated telecommunications system, and computing infrastructure on schedule after 117 days of focused, intense effort. The aggressive schedule was driven by the company's commitment to employees with families to coordinate the opening with local school schedules.

Boeing Chairman and CEO Phil Condit - who will officially commemorate the opening of the new Boeing World Headquarters during a ceremony at the building tomorrow - announced in March a broad rearchitecture of the company that included the headquarters relocation. In addition, the leaders of the company's business units were given increased authority and responsibility to run their operations based on the needs of their customers, markets and communities where they do business.

"Boeing is in the midst of many exciting changes, and our new world headquarters in Chicago is part of our ongoing transformation," Condit said. "We intend to grow our enterprise here and create businesses that open frontiers and advance technology, while allowing our business leaders in other locations to drive their businesses to their full potential."

The building is designed with a vision of instant access to information by anyone from anywhere. More than 225 miles of data, communications and security cable were installed to support the more than 300 computers and 500 telephones needed on opening day.

Office spaces have been equipped with more than 3,000 data and telephone connections to support future information technology advancements along with systems needed to meet the goal of wireless connectivity in the future.

Boeing employees in Chicago are just a mouse click away from any Boeing facility, customer or supplier in 145 countries. Boeing employees, customers and suppliers visiting the new world headquarters will find a number of "mobile desk" touchdown spaces that provide Internet and LAN access, and equipment needed to be productive while away from their home offices.

C1850