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About Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP
With more than 1,400 lawyers in the U.S. and Europe, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP is among the largest law practices in the world. The firm’s Chicago office houses 500 attorneys, placing it among the largest in Chicago.
About the Sites
The firm’s Chicago facilities are located in three sites across Chicago. The largest is the recently constructed 48-story Hyatt Center, home to 500 lawyers plus supporting personnel. A second location in the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank Building houses additional support staff, including several firm-wide functions. A separate data center is located approximately 30 miles away, on the outskirts of the city.
Professional Services
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw insisted on top quality data components, design and installation to ensure smooth network operation. The structured cabling system was designed by Environmental System Design (ESD) in conjunction with Molex. Molex worked closely with the firm and ESD throughout the project planning and with Maron Electronic Switching Systems, the Molex Certified Installer, during the installation. Scott Leighton, Molex Sales Director, describes the project: “Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw was in need of a unique, high-performance, competitively priced solution to accommodate their growing data requirements. Molex was able to meet and exceed all of these criteria.” In addition to specific product needs, Maron’s superb project management and installation capabilities allowed the team to complete the project in accordance with the clients’ needs, scheduled move and budget.
The Installation
Maron was chosen to manage the installation phase of the project, including the 12-story, 7350 drop installation at Hyatt Center, which took eight months from inception to occupancy. The uniquely shaped oval building made coordination of workstations an issue, as well as the building having all raised floors with HVAC overhead. Clune Construction, the general contractor responsible for coordinating all disciplines associated with construction, was another integral partner in the installation. Jack Ryan, Project Manager for Maron, comments: ”This was a fast paced project that, even with it’s challenges, was completed successfully thanks to the coordination efforts between all parties, including Molex, ESD, Maron, and Clune.“
Mohawk AdvanceLite™ fiber backbone connects each telecommunications room, while AdvanceNet™ Category 6 UTP cable connects the workstations. They now also have redundant entrance facilities from multiple carriers as well as redundant fiber optic backbones to each telecommunications room to increase reliability. A total of 11,350 drops were installed between the three sites.
The installation required various Molex products, including custom fiber pigtails, copper patch cords, patch panels, fiber enclosures, copper and fiber connectors, outlet solutions and cable management.
The Outcome
Jim Sauvageau, Senior Associate at ESD, said there were a number of factors behind the decision to select Molex: “Molex presented an attractive combination of technical performance, pricing and installation support. All three phases of the project were successfully delivered on an extremely aggressive schedule and performed as specified.”
Joe Foster, the firm’s Global Wide Area Network Manager, comments: “After a full year of operation, we have had no problems with our Molex structured cabling, whether in our server rooms or at the desktop. It continues to be a very low maintenance portion of
the infrastructure, and since the initial installation, we have actually expanded the use of the UTP cabling runs to seamlessly deliver cable TV to several offices throughout the building.”
Steve Wells, the firm’s Executive Director, adds: “We’re delighted with the way this project turned out and particularly want to thank our good friends at Molex for their significant contribution to its success.”
