Adobe Campus Halfway Finished, Will House 1,000 Employees

The steel, glass and concrete monolith rising along I-15 in east Lehi was born out of lofty aspirations.

With open workspaces, a good view, large park-like green spaces equipped with wifi, an on-site cafeteria and workout facilities, environmentally friendly design and access to public transit, the new Adobe building was made to “be a real campus that exudes Adobe culture,” said John Mellor, vice president of business development and corporate strategy.

Growth of the company’s digital marketing group really drove the need for expansion, Mellor said. Omniture had been casually looking for more space for a few years, but when Adobe acquired Omniture in 2009, a building upgrade made even more sense.

Adobe broke ground on its new facility at 3750 N. Frontage Road in Lehi in late September 2011 and expects to be finished in November.

Adobe currently employs 800 people in the state. When its new campus is finished, it plans to have about 1,000 employees in Utah. Mellor said the jobs cover a variety of fields from computer engineers to finance to marketing. “There’s such a rich workforce here (in Utah),” he said.

The building will house both the digital marketing and digital media units, said Wade Sherman, lead counsel for digital marketing. “It’s cool because you can attract talent from all these different walks of life.”

Mellor said having a building that is visually beautiful, state of the art and enhances work-life balance is a big tool in recruitment.

When finished, the campus will meet LEED gold certification, and will meet platinum certification a few years after, said Jonathon Francom, director of global workplace strategic programs.

“People want to work for companies that are socially responsible, environmentally responsible,” Sherman said.

Adobe is even using the heat from the equipment in the building, like servers, to warm the building during colder months.

In addition to the estimated $5 million a month the construction of the building is putting into the Utah economy, the jobs it will bring are “family-sustaining jobs,” said Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager for digital marketing. He said Adobe’s Utah jobs pay 175 percent of the Utah County average wage.

Building Facts

• 100,000 cubic yards of earth were moved to create the site
• More than 18,000 yards of concrete went into the building, which is enough concrete to build a sidewalk from the site past Ogden
• 2,250 tons of steel were used in the building
• About 800 people are working on its construction

(5.2.12)