IBM’s former office buildings in Boca Raton turn into a modern tech campus

Built in 1968, the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC), at 1.7 million square feet, is the largest office campus in Florida. Marcel Breuer and Robert F. Gatje codesigned the buildings of BRiC for IBM, the campus’s first owner. In the 1980s, IBM developed, manufactured, and mass-produced its first personal computer at BRiC. 

For his brutalist design, with a façade repeating the same geometric pattern, Breuer took inspiration from the beauty he found in the repetitions of mass production. Designed for Florida’s tropical climate, the building features heavy concrete shading canopies over its glass windows to provide cooling and protection from the sun. The design also provides protection against hurricane damage such as floods. 

After purchasing BRiC in 2018, the building’s current owner, CP Group, has been transforming it from a mostly empty office building into a thriving tech campus. Added amenities include restaurants, art galleries, and coffee shops. CP Group also is in the process of rezoning from a light research and industrial park to a planned mobility development, which will expand BRiC to include office, retail, hospitality, and residential. Additionally, CP Group is pursuing a master plan to add retail, townhomes, and an amphitheater—turning the campus into a town center. 

Architecture firm CallisonRTKL has used a phased strategy to provide flexibility around the existing tenants and day-to-day operations while pursuing a ground-up enhancement. CallisonRTKL’s work includes the following:

• Increasing the allowable floor area ratio from four to six and upping the maximum allowable development by 1,123,850 square feet
• Reducing the setbacks from 50 feet to 20 feet 
• Standardizing office planning metrics
• Scaling the amenities, landscaping, and infrastructure in tandem with the development’s phases

On the Building Team:
Owner and developer: CP Group 
Design architects: Marcel Breuer and Robert F. Gatje
Architect of record: CallisonRTKL
Structural engineer: Jezerinac Group