AA Headquarters could possibly relocate?
- Thread starter swamt
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jimntx
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The older of the two current headquarters buildings is almost 30 years old. Considering the technological improvements over that time--security systems, wireless internet, etc.--why would they move to an almost 40 year old building? And, have to pay cross-country moving expenses for 1000s of employees.Dont call me Shirley said:
eolesen
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- Jul 23, 2003
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Taking an older building like One Piedmont might make sense if you could gut it and start over, but who wants to move to NC?
There's a breakpoint of around 1985 where you saw some big changes in how commercial buildings were designed, which is when space planners realized every desk would have a PC on it some day, which wasn't a consideration before then. With older buildings, features like cable chases between floors, raised floors or cableways in the ceilings, structured wiring in the core, and extra cooling capacity simply weren't a consideration before 1985 with the exception of purpose built facilities like a call center or an airport concourse.
CP4/HDQ2 and CP5/HDQ1 were both built between 1989-1991, and have all those features mentioned above.
Getting another 1000-1500 people into the buildings shouldn't be a problem if you replace the existing cube plan. Older cubes were designed with monster five drawer file cabinets and 5' of overheads for binders. With email and electronic project docs, those cabinets become junk collectors or sit empty. You could probably easily squeeze in about 20-30% more cubes into the same footprint just by eliminating the file cabinets. What might wind up being the problem is parking...
Better yet, just go to unassigned seating (BA does this in their HDQ) and let people work where they want to.
There's a breakpoint of around 1985 where you saw some big changes in how commercial buildings were designed, which is when space planners realized every desk would have a PC on it some day, which wasn't a consideration before then. With older buildings, features like cable chases between floors, raised floors or cableways in the ceilings, structured wiring in the core, and extra cooling capacity simply weren't a consideration before 1985 with the exception of purpose built facilities like a call center or an airport concourse.
CP4/HDQ2 and CP5/HDQ1 were both built between 1989-1991, and have all those features mentioned above.
Getting another 1000-1500 people into the buildings shouldn't be a problem if you replace the existing cube plan. Older cubes were designed with monster five drawer file cabinets and 5' of overheads for binders. With email and electronic project docs, those cabinets become junk collectors or sit empty. You could probably easily squeeze in about 20-30% more cubes into the same footprint just by eliminating the file cabinets. What might wind up being the problem is parking...
Better yet, just go to unassigned seating (BA does this in their HDQ) and let people work where they want to.
nycbusdriver
Veteran
eolesen said:
Compared to other geographical choices, NC is still quite the backwater. Charlotte is coming along nicely, but still an "also ran" among metropolitan area where highly-skilled, highly-talented managerial types want to live. (Here comes the "Charlotte is the HQ for Bank Of America, and blah blah blah." I wager the top management of those companies get out of town to actually enjoy life, and their underlings take a transfer to NYC, LAX, SFO, etc. at the first opportunity.) The perennial regressive NC political scene doesn't help unless you want folks with only a high school diploma running your mega-corporation.
American Airlines HQ in Winston-Salem? Not in this universe.
eolesen
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Shiny new buildings with trendy furniture, and no private offices even for executives..... Let's see how long those concepts last.
The airline I work for has been opting for some of the same features in our off-airport admin offices -- unreserved seating, lots of small meeting space designed for 4-5 people, whiteboard painted walls you can write on from floor to ceiling. Smartly, they left private offices for directors and above. When half your day is in planning meetings or on conference calls, you really need a door.
The airline I work for has been opting for some of the same features in our off-airport admin offices -- unreserved seating, lots of small meeting space designed for 4-5 people, whiteboard painted walls you can write on from floor to ceiling. Smartly, they left private offices for directors and above. When half your day is in planning meetings or on conference calls, you really need a door.
Jester
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La Li Lu Le Lo
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If it is only a summer job then why does it have step raises and a 9 year top out?
If it is only a summer job then why did it offer pensions (before they got frozen)?
Your elitism is showing.
Jester
Veteran
I guess you missed the joke... Parker stated at a townhall years ago that America West management never thought rampers would last more than a few years, at most, before moving onto another job. The model of low pay, limited benefits was designed to discourage career rampers, but with the merger of US Airways, and the JCBA leading to substantial pay raises, former America West agents were staying longer.
Also I was making commentary that the new AA HQ has a wall honoring individual flight attendants (and there are probably something for pilots, as well), but I doubt there will be anything for fleet service agents given Parker's mentality of this not to be a long-term career or value of the craft.
La Li Lu Le Lo
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I see.
Apologies.
I did indeed miss the joke.
Given some of the negative statements about Fleet from Mechanics over the years you can hardly blame me for missing the joke.
eolesen
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- Jul 23, 2003
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[QUOTE="Jester, post: 1337936, member: 13241"
Also I was making commentary that the new AA HQ has a wall honoring individual flight attendants (and there are probably something for pilots, as well), but I doubt there will be anything for fleet service agents given Parker's mentality of this not to be a long-term career or value of the craft.[/QUOTE]
Pretty certain the three paintings of the flight attendants came from the Stewardess College, which was torn down to make room for Skyview.
It's a rare piece of history Parker and crew saw fit to keep. Don't expect parity for the other workgroups. It didn't exist then, either.
Also I was making commentary that the new AA HQ has a wall honoring individual flight attendants (and there are probably something for pilots, as well), but I doubt there will be anything for fleet service agents given Parker's mentality of this not to be a long-term career or value of the craft.[/QUOTE]
Pretty certain the three paintings of the flight attendants came from the Stewardess College, which was torn down to make room for Skyview.
It's a rare piece of history Parker and crew saw fit to keep. Don't expect parity for the other workgroups. It didn't exist then, either.
jimntx
Veteran
The Flight Attendant portraits were a last minute substitution to the new HDQ decor. The Dogs Playing Poker pictures got damaged in the move.
Too late for that. He's more interested in competing with low cost carriers like Spirit and Frontier than running the worlds largest airline.
