Name: Judy Schvaneveldt, IIDA
Firm: MHTN Archtects; Salt Lake City, UT
Client: Morinda Corporate Headquarters; Provo, UT

$18,000,000
151,000 Square Feet
Completion Date: September 30, 2002

This building is the corporate headquarters for the Morinda Corporation, a worldwide marketing and distribution company for Thaitian Noni Juice and Noni products. The vision of the board of directors was to create a building that would have a high-end conservative corporate feeling with an international appeal. They wanted the general public as well as sales representatives and distributors from all over the world to be comfortable with the design.

Board members felt it was important to have the design represent Tahiti as this is the source of the company's product. The main concern was achieving a hint of Tahiti without being too literal. This was achieved by the use of natural materials, shapes and textures that abstractly represent tropical elements. The majority of the color palette remains neutral in keeping with a conservative corporate environment while bright accent colors in strategic locations provide the necessary intensity of chroma found in the tropics.

Included in the planning of the building are a umber of training rooms, a large auditorium, a feature rotunda entry space and a prefunction area with several small lounge groups for informal conferencing, one of which is an enclosed "hut" concept. The main rotunda space is the connector for two office wings with employee offices and workstations as well as offices of the board of directors and support staff.

The client commented that one of the features of the building they are most pleased with is that the common areas can accommodate large groups of people and still maintain a feeling of intimacy. They also have expressed the success of the design incorporating the right amount of reference to Tahiti.