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Johnson Controls New Controls Technology Center

24 April 1998

Johnson Controls Announces $10-$15 Million New Controls Technology Center at Its Downtown Milwaukee Site

    MILWAUKEE, April 24 -- Johnson Controls, Inc.
will build a $10-15 million Controls Technology Center adjacent to its
downtown headquarters for its controls business.  The announcement was made by
James H. Keyes, the company's chairman and chief executive officer.
    The new seven-story building will be located at the southwest corner of
E. Michigan and N. Jackson streets, adjacent to the current Johnson Controls
building at 507 E. Michigan St.
    Mr. Keyes said that the new 120,000-square-foot building will be designed
to foster innovation by its employees, as well as serve as a showplace for the
company's advanced controls technology and expertise in creating quality
building environments. He added that the decision to locate the new center
downtown was positive for the company, its employees and the health of
Milwaukee's downtown.  "We appreciate the cooperation provided by city, county
and state officials in helping us make this project a reality," Mr. Keyes
said.
    Brian Stark, vice president and general manager of Controls, explained
that the open-office design of the Controls Technology Center will reflect the
fact that employees are working in very different ways than traditionally:
"They are working in teams that come together, sometimes for short periods of
time, sometimes for years, and the composition of teams change as does their
purpose.  Our people, like most employees today, are also using more
technology to do their work, and that technology needs to be accessible
wherever they are located."
    He added, "Our goal is to provide our employees with a comfortable,
productive environment that fosters new ways of working as well as the
greatest ability to reconfigure work areas quickly and efficiently.  The key
word for us is 'flexibility,'" Mr. Stark emphasized.
    The new structure will include the most advanced building control
technologies to provide environmental comfort for workers, including Personal
Environments(R) created and marketed by Johnson Controls.  Personal
Environments systems provide desktop control of temperature, lighting, airflow
and background noise masking for an individual cubicle or workstation.
    An existing eight-story building, known as the American Appraisal building
and owned by Johnson Controls since 1993, will be razed to make room for the
new structure, Mr. Stark said.  The American Appraisal building was last
occupied in 1992.  Demolition is scheduled to begin by early June.
Construction of the new 120,000-square-foot facility is expected to take two
years to complete.
    Maintaining a historic look to ensure that the new building would blend
well with the Johnson Controls building at 507 E. Michigan St. is essential,
company officials said.  The new building will be a brick and reinforced
concrete structure using a wall of windows on each floor to provide plenty of
natural lighting throughout the facility.  The 507 E. Michigan St. building
was originally constructed in 1904 by Warren Johnson, the founder of Johnson
Controls.
    Johnson Controls currently employs 900 people at its downtown building.
The company said that the total number is expected to increase when the
Controls technology Center is completed.  Departments and functions that will
occupy the new facility will be determined at a later date.
    "The city is very pleased that Johnson Controls has decided to make this
significant investment in the heart of Milwaukee," Mayor John O. Norquist
said. "Johnson Controls is a highly respected business in its industry and is
greatly contributing to the growth in downtown's vitality.  This office
building will complement other downtown development projects and provide
excellent opportunities for 'knowledge workers' with one of the country's
leaders in high technology."
    "Through its commitment to build a new facility in the state, Johnson
Controls is again demonstrating how it has been a good corporate citizen of
Milwaukee and Wisconsin for more than 100 years," said Gov. Tommy Thompson.
"By putting the new facility in Milwaukee's downtown, company officials also
are proving they are helping to create jobs that are easily accessible."
    "The county is extremely pleased that Johnson Controls is supporting
Milwaukee's downtown," said Milwaukee County Executive Thomas Ament.  "This
state-of-the-art facility will be a working testimony to Johnson Controls'
reputation of providing best-in-class technology."
    Johnson Controls Inc., with headquarters in Milwaukee, Wis., is a global
market leader in automotive systems and building controls.  Through its
Automotive Systems Group, it supplies seating systems, interior systems and
batteries.  Through its Controls Group, it serves the non-residential
buildings market with control systems and services, and integrated facility
management.  Founded in 1885, it operates from more than 500 locations around
the world.  Johnson Controls securities are listed on the New York Stock
Exchange.  Visit Johnson Controls on the World Wide Web at
http://www.johnsoncontrols.com

SOURCE  Johnson Controls