IBM Watson is heralding in the next technology revolution from its new 150,000-sf headquarters in Manhattan’s Silicon Alley, designed by interior architect The Switzer Group.
Transforming floors four through seven of Fumihiko Maki’s glass-and-steel structure at 51 Astor Place, Switzer Group created an incubator for new applications of IBM’s breakthrough cognitive computing technology, and a design studio for next-generation programs, software, and apps.
The dedicated IBM Watson headquarters was conceived as a showcase for Watson’s capabilities, and as an inspirational workspace for Millennials and idea generators of all ages. Functionally and stylistically, the facility represents a departure for Switzer Group’s work with IBM, which dates back 40 years to the design firm’s opening in 1975—the same year IBM launched its first portable computer, weighing in at 50 lbs.
To represent Watson’s capabilities, the Building Team designed a total sensory experience on the office’s fifth floor. Architectural fins that change color with the voice of Watson surround the circumference of an immersion room, where clients can interact directly with the technology.
“Our primary goal at 51 Astor Place was to create a spirit of excitement, openness, and collaboration in order to move IBM’s business forward and help introduce Watson to developers and industry,” says Lou Switzer, CEO of the Switzer Group. “The new building’s core and shell, with floor to ceiling windows, high slab to slab height, column-less upper floors, and 360 degree light, served this objective well.”
The Switzer Group set the tone with a clean, timeless look for the interiors, combining terrazzo and textured metallic Laminam materials in the elevator banks, and lots of glass, acoustical wood with walnut veneers, European-inspired furnishings and LED lighting throughout. The fourth floor design studio is a totally flexible, open floor plan, divisible by hanging panels that double as marker boards.
Desks with all white surfaces are moveable and can be raised and lowered for standing or sitting. To counterpoint the wide open spaces, seating areas and niches for small group gatherings, and glass enclosed “phone booths” for increased privacy, are strategically situated.
“The design approach was to create a blank canvas from which IBM could operate in an ever-changing environment, one that is fluid and expansive rather than static and fixed,” says Switzer Group Creative Director Luc Massaux.
Image: The Switzer Group
The Watson experience
As demonstrated in its 2011 winning debut against top players on the game show Jeopardy, IBM’s Watson processes information more like a human than a traditional computer. The system understands natural language, develops evidence-based hypotheses, and “gets smarter” as it receives and integrates feedback.
To represent Watson’s capabilities, IBM and The Switzer Group, along with Cosentini MEP engineers and AV Services, designed a total sensory experience on the office’s fifth floor. Architectural fins that change color with the voice of Watson surround the circumference of an immersion room, where clients can interact directly with the technology. A 40 ft video wall equipped with Oblong Industries’ futuristic Mezzanine system allows visitors to move data from one screen to another with a wave of their hand.
“The real challenge was finding the best way to integrate the audiovisual and technology with the aesthetic," says Switzer Group Executive Principal Beth Holechek. "Everything had to be planned to extreme tolerances. Sensors had strict placement requirements, with a precise amount of a light, air and space needed for the system to function properly.”
Completed on an ultra-fast track in October of 2014, IBM plans to roll out Switzer’s interior design approach for IBM Watson worldwide, with work currently underway for facilities in Texas and North Carolina.
Image: The Switzer Group
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Loft Condo Conversion That's Outside the Box
Few people would have taken a look at a century-old cigar box factory with crumbling masonry and rotted wood beams and envisioned stylish loft condos, but Miles Development Partners did just that. And they made that vision a reality at Box Factory Lofts in historic Ybor City, Fla. Once the largest cigar box plant in the world, the Tampa Box Company produced boxes of many shapes and sizes, spec...
| Aug 11, 2010
Idea Center at Playhouse Square: A better idea
Through a unique partnership between a public media organization and a performing arts/education entity, a historic building in the heart of downtown Cleveland has been renovated as a model of sustainability and architectural innovation. Playhouse Square, which had been working for more than 30 years to revitalize the city's arts district, teamed up with ideastream, a newly formed media group t...
| Aug 11, 2010
Pioneer Courthouse: Shaking up the court
In the days when three-quarters of America was a wild, lawless no-man's land, Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Ore., stood out as a symbol of justice and national unity. The oldest surviving federal structure in the Pacific Northwest and the second-oldest courthouse west of the Mississippi, Pioneer Courthouse was designed in 1875 by Alfred Mullett, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury.
| Aug 11, 2010
Divine intervention
Designed by H. H. Richardson in the 1870s to serve the city's burgeoning Back Bay neighborhood, Trinity Church in the City of Boston would come to represent the essence of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, with its clay tile roof, abundant use of polychromy, rough-faced stone, heavy arches, and massive size.
| Aug 11, 2010
Westin Hotel
Mid-twentieth-century projects are in a state of limbo. In many cities, safeguards against quick demolition don't even cover “new” buildings built after 1939, yet many such buildings may be obsolete by current standards. The Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank, located in downtown Minneapolis, was one such building, a rare example of architecture from a time when American design was ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Dream Fields, Lone Star Style
How important are athletic programs to U.S. school districts? Here's one leading indicator: In 2005, the National Football League sold 17 million tickets. That same year, America's high schools sold an estimated 225 million tickets to football games, according to the American Football Coaches Association.
| Aug 11, 2010
Platinum Award: Monumentally Hip Hotel Conversion
At one time the tallest building west of the Mississippi, the Foshay Tower has stood proudly on the Minneapolis skyline since 1929. Built by Wilbur Foshay as a tribute to the Washington Monument, the 30-story obelisk served as an office building—and cultural icon—for more than 70 years before the Ryan Companies and co-developer RWB Holdings partnered with Starwood Hotels & Resor...
| Aug 11, 2010
Living and Learning Center, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
From its humble beginnings as a tiny pharmaceutical college founded by 14 Boston pharmacists, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences has grown to become the largest school of its kind in the U.S. For more than 175 years, MCPHS operated solely in Boston, on a quaint, 2,500-student campus in the heart of the city's famed Longwood Medical and Academic Area.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gold Award: Eisenhower Theater, Washington, D.C.
The Eisenhower Theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., opened in 1971. By the turn of the century, after three-plus decades of heavy use, the 1,142-seat box-within-a-box playhouse on the Potomac was starting to show its age. Poor lighting and tired, worn finishes created a gloomy atmosphere.
| Aug 11, 2010
Giants 300 University Report
University construction spending is 13% higher than a year ago—mostly for residence halls and infrastructure on public campuses—and is expected to slip less than 5% over the next two years. However, the value of starts dropped about 10% in recent months and will not return to the 2007–08 peak for about two years.