Verizon Media’s new office and broadcast production studio
By David Malone, Managing Editor
Verizon Media, a division of Verizon Communications that houses digital brands like Yahoo, TechCrunch, and HuffPost, has recently received a new workspace and broadcast production studio. The goal of the project was to create a facility that could foster connection and collaboration across brands.
The 21,700-sf facility includes a reception desk, work and waiting lounges, three studios, three control rooms with audio booths, one master control room, one broadcast equipment room, 12 edit rooms, one audio suite, and six breakout/huddle rooms.
The new reception hub serves as the main reception for Verizon Media offices. It is a destination for both staff and visitors and connects with open lounges for working and waiting. The reception area includes sight lines into Control Room 1 and Master Control and a branded media wall that can display a variety of programming.
The new broadcast production studio provides a physical platform where all brands can produce media content. Multiple studios, control rooms, and plug-and-play locations provide flexible shooting opportunities and respond to different production needs. Control Room 1 and Control Room 3 are used for daily, eight-hour live Yahoo! Finance broadcasts and ancillary shoots. Control Room 2 is a general-purpose studio for other company brands.
Studio A was a priority for preservation due to its column-free space and being acoustically isolated to high broadcast standards. Studio B was the site of an existing glass studio. The glass partitions were removed and reused at other locations. Studio B was then enclosed with new solid, acoustic partitions.
Control Rooms 1 and 3 were new construction and were planned to accommodate a high number of positions with some room for additional seating. These rooms also include in-room audio booths to maximize production workflow.
In order to support the consolidation of production from other facility locations, this location required an increase and expansion of the infrastructure. A new rack room was constructed in the existing location. This helped to reduce costs by maintaining critical existing pathways but allowed an increase in size and an upgrade in equipment and HVAC system. A new cable tray network was also installed throughout the broadcast area.
Perkins+Will served as led project designers and architect of record with Kostow Greenwood Architects as the broadcast studio design architects. L&K Partners was the contractor and Syska Hennessy Group was the MEP/FP engineer.