The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters Great Room
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters
New York, New York

A Creative Hub Uniting Disney’s Media Teams Under One Roof

The new state-of-the-art Disney NYC Headquarters creates a vertically integrated creative campus anchored by a spacious Great Room perched high above the Hudson Square neighborhood.
HIGHLIGHTS
  • 1.2 Million Square Feet
  • Pursuing LEED Platinum and Fitwel Accreditations, All-Electric Building
  • Shared Amenities, Production Spaces, Live Audience Spaces
  • State-of-the-Art Newsroom
  • A Variety of Modern Production and Broadcast Spaces
  • Three, Large Live Audience Studios
  • Activity-Based Workplaces
  • Exceeded Code for All-Gender Restroom, Lactation, and Wellness Rooms
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters with city view
Challenge

The media content landscape is evolving rapidly. New formats and distribution options require agile and responsive production teams, who also need updated tech-rich workplaces that facilitate creativity and collaboration. Eliminating spatial divisions between production, broadcast, and wider business units can create a more integrated and equitable workplace experience while also facilitating better creative workstreams.

Solution

After decades operating workplaces distributed across Manhattan, Disney’s media teams came together in a multi-disciplinary vertical creative campus designed by Gensler. To facilitate connection and community, we anchored the new 1.2 million-square-foot headquarters around shared gathering places such as a great room, theater, reading room, conference center, and work café. The building’s daylit 190,000-square-foot central newsroom and its media-ready workplaces establish a seamless platform where creative teams produce media for any format.

Impact

The company’s new NYC headquarters affirms its long history as a creative icon. With a design that seamlessly integrates production functions directly into the workplace, the NYC HQ will be able to anticipate evolving media workflows and future advancements in technology and formats. The new workplace is poised to attract, retain, and empower top creative and news talent, and reinforce Disney as a leader in the media industry.

The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters Great Room
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters staircase
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters Great Room below stairs
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters Great Room
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters Great Room staircase
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters theatre
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters work corner with view
The Walt Disney Company NYC Headquarters hallway
Gensler was responsible for all interior architecture and design, workplace strategy and design, and media production and broadcast design. The firm partnered with SOM on the design of the Great Room (SOM is also responsible for the base building architecture and design, the ground floor lobbies, graphic design, wayfinding, and signage throughout, and the terraces).
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