The fast-rising new research facility at Calgary’s Nortel Networks Westwinds campus off McKnight Boulevard could be a model for the innovative high-tech workplace of the future, predict company representatives.

When the $54-million Westwinds Innovation Centre is completed this spring, Nortel employees will move into a new kind of work space where office spaces are called “neighbourhoods” and the conference area is known as the “town square.”

It’s all part of Nortel’s effort to provide a creative working environment for staff working in the pressure-cooker sector of wireless research development, where market windows must be hit or you lose the business to your competition.

“We’re doing a lot of unique things to make it a very fun place to work, and an efficient place to work,” says Pete Garrett, vice-president of Nortel Network’s wireless access development.

“This can be a high-stress environment and people need the ability to relieve stress. We provide facilities to enable them to have a little bit of fun between their high-pressure events.”

Nortel is consolidating six existing sites scattered across Calgary into the new building, which will allow room for future expansion. Besides the 24-hour cafeteria, modular furniture which can be rearranged on demand, foosball-equipped recreational areas, and the weight training room, the new 220,000 sq.-ft. building will boast state-of-the-art technology for up to 800 workers.

It’s even a shade ahead of leading edge — while they work, Nortel employees will be test-driving their own research products in third generation (3G) wireless, a technology which integrates voice, high-speed data and video with wireless devices such as handheld computers and cellular phones. And 4G — which will move data even faster — is just around the corner.

“We’re using what we’re designing, so people will be able to see what works and what doesn’t work, and get real-time feedback,” says Garrett, adding Nortel wanted to create an environment where wireless Internet application developers and device and terminal manufacturers can work side-by-side in developing new wireless Internet solutions.

The cellular telephones in the high-tech building will have voice/data and multimedia capability using the latest generation of 3G wireless Internet technology designed by Nortel. A wireless LAN will allow employees to move their laptops around the building effortlessly.

“Wireless has been growing very dramatically around the world in the second generation technology,” explains Garrett. “Similarly the Internet has been growing very dramatically. When you put the two of them together, it will be the next growth engine in technology over the next 10 years.”

Common areas, including the striking central atrium, will be focused around group productivity, with movable furniture and work areas as new project teams are created. Window systems provide a natural, indirect light so computer screens aren’t affected.

The new structure is being built adjacent to Nortel’s Westwinds Building at 5111 47th St. N.E., a four-year-old facility which tests and manufactures wireless products, one of seven “global systems houses” Nortel operates around the world.

The bottom line, says Garrett, is staying on the leading edge of 3G while keeping employees happy and motivated in a business where the clock never stops.

“We move very aggressively to move into next generation technology,” he adds.

“That movement of the marketplace puts tremendous pressure on our staff for productivity in delivering products quickly. And the more productive the work environment can be, it supports the time-to-market initiative.”

The company’s growth has surged from the days it was a manufacturer of telephone equipment. Today, fibre-optic networks and wireless transfer of digital information over the Internet are the company’s bread and butter, driving revenues of about $32 billion last year. Nortel is now the continent’s Number 2 maker of telecom products, behind Lucent Technologies, and still is one of the largest phone equipment makers in North America.

With close to 2,000 workers, Nortel Networks is Calgary’s second largest private-sector employee, after TELUS.

Employees at six of Nortel’s leased buildings around Calgary will move into the Westwinds Innovation Centre on April 15.