Building for the Future

A conversation with Roland Groeneveld about OnLogic's new global headquarters

OnLogic has locations and team members in North Carolina, the Netherlands, Germany, Taiwan and Malaysia, but our global headquarters is located in South Burlington, Vermont. While the Vermont team has been working at the new location for a few months, the official grand-opening celebration is May 13, 2024. We sat down with OnLogic’s Co-founder and Executive Chair Roland Groeneveld to ask him some questions about his vision and goals for the new building.   

Why move? 

In-person culture

First, it is important to understand our culture. We are an in-person business. Collaboration, mentorship, and employee engagement happen best when we are working together, face-to-face. Sometimes my most important meetings are in the quick conversations that happen in passing. 

Fast-growing business

We are also a fast growing business. Supporting that growth means we needed more room - for production, warehousing, and for all the people needed to support that growth. We simply outgrew our former location (also in South Burlington). There was no physical space to expand. In fact, we were renting additional office space down the road. It was important to us to bring everyone back together. Plus we were getting close to reaching the max capacity for our production space and warehouse and with our growth, we needed the ability to produce more. We needed space to grow. 

Why did you choose the Tech Park location? 

Once we knew we needed to move, we looked for an existing structure that would meet our needs - without success. Our team needed a combination of office space, warehouse and production space - that’s a unique structure. So we looked for a centrally located and easily accessible location to build. 

The location here at Tech Park in South Burlington ticked all our boxes. Plus, the location right off the highway and near the Whales Tails sculpture gives us great visibility. Burlington is a thriving tech hub and when visitors drive to visit the area, we’re happy to be the gateway to welcome them.

What were some of the goals of the new space? 

Energy efficiency

We had an amazing opportunity to create an energy efficient structure from the ground up. We prioritized sustainability throughout the project. 

• Insulation: We added Glavel, made from recycled glass powder, as insulation under our concrete slab. It has a low carbon profile and it offers great thermal insulation. 
• Green energy: We heat and cool the entire building using geothermal technology and the roof mounted solar array powers the majority of our building. 
• Smart building automation: Lighting, temperature control and more is automated based on occupancy and usage.
• Efficiency: We use power efficient LED lights throughout the entire building and prioritized getting as much sunlight into the building as possible. 

Collaboration, workflow optimization and space to recharge

Our teams from Wiemann Lamphere Architects and ReArch Construction understood that we wanted a true collaborative space where teams can easily interact and recharge. 

• Flow of production - the production space and warehouse were optimized for ergonomics and streamlined for production. In fact, with our new facility, we have quadrupled our production capabilities. If we need to produce even more, we have room to expand.

• Open workspace - All the work space is open which helps to eliminate silos of information - there are no individual offices. One huge benefit of the open space is accessibility to windows. Everyone has a window view and can benefit from our amazing views of the Vermont Green Mountains. 

• Meeting spaces - We have tons of meeting space from large meeting rooms with dual wall-mounted displays, to rooms designed for smaller team meetings, and many comfortable chairs and tables scattered throughout the entire building for impromptu conversations. We are enabling communication for innovation where and when it needs to happen.

• Creative spaces - We have a very creative team and we incorporated color and art throughout the building. Most of the art was designed and implemented by our team or local craftspeople.

• Food and drink - It's no secret that I, for one, am fueled by espresso, so we have espresso and coffee bars throughout the building and an amazing cafe for breakfast and lunch with outdoor seating. 
• Whales Tails walking path - We have the pleasure of overlooking the Reverence statues (aka the whales tails) by sculptor Jim Sardonis. We’ve made this iconic landmark more accessible with a gravel walking path. We invite visitors to enjoy it! (Just clean up after your dogs please!)

A showcase

I took a very hands-on approach during the construction because good infrastructure is so important. Our incredibly smart team members do their best in a collaborative environment that can spark innovation. When customers visit, we want to showcase our attention to detail from our building to our industrial computers. This building reflects our products, our team, our values, and how we operate, and it was important to us to make that apparent from the moment you enter the building 

This is an exciting new chapter for OnLogic, and it's wonderful to have the opportunity to grow here in Vermont where we've built the business over the last 20 years. It's a moment that sets us up for what we hope will be a bright future of continued innovation here.