The facility's design, which will feature such amenities as a multi-media conference suite and 200-seat café with an outdoor terrace, is expected to be completed by late April, with construction anticipated to be finished by December 2001. The building will be on NIC's 65-acre north Austin campus at 11500 N. MoPac. It is the third structure STG has designed for fast-growing National Instruments.

Jim Susman, a partner in Susman Tisdale Gayle notes that National Instruments has been named one of Fortune Magazine's Top 100 Places To Work, and thus development of the amenities assumes even stronger significance as the design takes shape. At completion, the development site will include Town Squares, outdoor dining areas, volleyball courts, hiking trail and native live oak forests.

"As National Instruments' growth has steadily and dramatically increased, so has the company's emphasis on employee work environments," says Susman. "This recognition of the strength of people as a resource was simultaneously a requirement of our architectural approach and the product of our previous efforts."

Susman says the building underscores the solidity and strength of the organization by virtue of its scale--eight stories--and 47,500-sf floorplates. "Beyond its size, however, the perceived scale of the building is carefully manipulated to reflected more human proportions as one approaches and moves around it," Susman says.

The building facade features a carefully articulated composition of multicolored pre-cast concrete, ribbon windows, punched openings and curtain wall, he adds. "Interior spaces are similarly designed to reflect both a business-like attitude and the familial atmosphere which has come to characterize the corporation's culture," Susman says. "The integration of 'oasis' brainstorming areas within the predominantly R&D structure further the emphasis on people-oriented spaces."

Catering to high-tech firms is nothing new to Susman Tisdale Gayle. Operating since 1976, STG has evolved into one of the state's newer generation of firms providing a comprehensive range of design services, those in the real estate industry say.

The firm's projects range in size from small interior renovations to new campuses. Some of STG's clients include the University of Texas, Trammell Crow, Cousins Stone, GSD&M Advertising Agency, the State of Texas, Dell Computer, yclip, and drkoop."Our belief is that truly successful projects must deal with exterior and interior issues simultaneously," Susman adds. "Delivering responsible design is one of the concepts that we have built our business around."