What does a newsroom look like today? The storied Associated Press(AP) set about finding out when they decided to relocate to new global headquarters in New York City.
Moving from a dated space on Manhattan’s west side to a sheath of four floors at 200 Liberty Street in Brookfield Place, AP tasked TPG Architecture with crafting a workspace that would carry them into the future, complemented by thoughtfully conceived heritage experiences.
Set up across from the World Trade Center, AP returns to its original roots downtown. The news agency was founded in 1846, but its new workspace speaks to the future.
TPG’s workplace strategy centered around moving AP to a more open office plan rooted in team-oriented priorities – a place that would support AP’s changing work habits and a complex, always-in-motion news cycle. At 172,300 square feet, the new workspace reduces AP’s square footage by 40%. The number and size of private offices were both reduced.
“When they first came to us they said they needed 20% private offices and 80% open office,” said Doug West, creative director at TPG Architecture. “But when we started drawing it up and they saw it come together visually on the page, they realized they didn’t need that many enclosed spaces. It didn’t really reflect the transparency and the openness in the culture, so they were open to rethinking the plan.”
AP ended up with less than 5% enclosed offices and the remaining 95+% open office.
On the fifth floor, an octagonal rotunda serves as the newsroom hub, with information traveling to the center.
“The octagonal shape of the newsroom was a nice fit for the way the news flow of information works – how it travels to the senior editorial team at the center,” said Mr. West.
A central stair connects all floors, set below thousands of hanging tiles evoking the endless numbers of news stories produced by the agency. Spread across all floors is a mix of formal and informal collaboration rooms, executive offices, board rooms, and a café that serves as a multipurpose space for company townhall meetings, AP’s vote-counting operations and other large functions.
“We structured the layout of many of the major departments around how the views and daylighting hit the space, maximizing both to provide access to as many people as possible,” Mr. West noted.
The design team also devoted considerable time to the building’s relatively low floor-to-ceiling heights, seeking out creative solutions to the challenge.
“We spent a lot of time focusing on the design of the ceilings,” said Mr. West. “We wanted to avoid the feel of this monolithic, acres-of-office-space, single-plane corporate office. There was a lot of coordination among everyone and back-and-forth to build these features into the ceiling.”
In addition to the conventional workspaces, AP needed many high-tech specialty spaces: a 24/7 broadcast studio, a suite of green rooms, edit suites, a broadcast master control room and other support spaces, a data center and a temperature- and humidity-controlled photo archive.
The striking scale of tiles cascading from the central stair exudes a subtle nod to the inexhaustible nature of journalism, but other branding moments within the new AP headquarters make a more direct statement.
A gallery wall, filled with displays celebrating the AP’s 170-year history and Pulitzer Prize-winning achievements, leads staff and visitors from the elevator lobby to the main reception and beyond. AP and TPG also collaborated to create a memorial wall of honor commemorating AP journalists killed on the job. Etched into each piece of acrylic is the name of a journalist who died in the line of duty.
“Included in the experience are tablets that visitors can use to learn more about the people, their work and their experiences,” said Mr. West. “It is contemplative, but they’re able to engage with visitors on another level, too.”
Engaging, collaborative, futuristic and contemplative – the new Associated Press.
