Irrigation: Nike -- world class all the way
1 Sep, 2005 By: Ron Hall Landscape ManagementThe world headquarters site shows significant water savings and reduced plant loss because of its professionally maintained central control system
Nike is one of the world's most recognizable companies and its branded Swoosh has become a universal corporate identifier. The company employs approximately 23,000 people worldwide and its annual sales exceed $10 billion.
 The more than 5,000 employees at Nike World Headquarters enjoy a diverse landscape that inspires activity. |
The company's headquarters is equally world class. The 176.41-acre Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR, seven miles west of Portland, is handsomely (and diversely) landscaped, intensively used and environmentally friendly. More than 5,000 people work on the beautiful campus that has 16 buildings, each one named for a famous athlete. The employees take full advantage of the fields, trails and gyms that dot the campus.
The site is quite a testament to the 1962 partnership of Bill Bowerman, the long-time University of Oregon track & field coach, and Phil Knight, a former business student and a one-time runner under Bowerman's tutelage. Their first year sales under the name Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) totaled just $8,000. In 1972 BRS changed its name to Nike, named for the Greek winged goddess of victory, and the company went public in December 1980.
State of the art irrigation makes the beauty, utility and environmental consciousness of the site possible. It takes a team of pros working together to manage the intricacies of the system.
Central control the answer
Ellen Beighley, president of Irrigation Management Systems, Inc., (IMS), is one of several experienced landscape pros responsible for the health of the Nike site. Her 19-year-old, Portland-based company manages irrigation there with Maxicom2, the Rain Bird central control system that allows the monitoring and irrigation of many different parcels of property or landscaped sites from a single computer-accessed controller.
 Nike World HQ |
The Nike location is one of several Maxicom systems the 7-person IMS staff manages on large client properties. Other big-name clients include Intel, Columbia Tech Center and the PacTrust Corporate and Business Centers. IMS works as both a subcontractor to maintenance companies and also directly for clients.
"Two to four people in the office handle the computers we use to control these projects while the rest of the employees do field work," Beighley says. "Our field work includes installing the hardware that's used with Maxicom2, reviewing the physical irrigation system, troubleshooting irrigation problems and suggesting corrective measures to the landscape maintenance companies that we work with. When the situation requires, we perform water audits with the four certified irrigation auditors on staff."
Management of the Nike site, like almost all large and diversely landscaped properties, requires a cooperative working relationship between on-site professionals and contractors. Three years ago, TruGreen Landcare Branch Manager Mike Hansen asked Beighley to review and bid on controlling the irrigation there. TruGreen had installed the irrigation system on the 93-acre North Campus portion of the campus several years earlier. Other local contractors installed the irrigation on the 74-acre South Campus.
Beighley, who started IMS in 1986, shortly after Rain Bird introduced the Maxicom system, was delighted to become involved with the property.
An environmental leader
"Nike is a leader in environmental sensitivity and endorsed many innovative practices using almost all organic products on the site that Ron Clark, Nike project manager for TruGreen brings to them," Beighley says.
"In addition to multiple employee activities, many of Nike's business and charity functions are held on the landscaped areas of the campus. Integrating the watering schedules into these is a constant challenge.
"Nike is a growing and constantly changing campus. As the needs change, the landscape also changes," she adds. "With the exception of three change-outs of annual color, spring and fall are the major times when new plant material is installed."
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