The company’s corporate headquarters in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

This new corporate headquarters for the legendary environmental music company Muzak was designed in collaboration with Little & Associates. Having previously redesigned the Muzak identity, the company looked to us once again to design a building that would complement their new look. In addition, the building had to successfully combine hundreds of Muzak’s creative, technical and corporate staff, who were formerly scattered all over the country, and be able to house the largest digitized music library in the world.

Muzak identity reproduced in details throughout the building.

In a company where music is played throughout the office at all times, the headquarters also had to reflect and reinforce Muzak’s creative spirit. “We are an entertainment company that creates for our clients. We needed a place to show that,” says Bruce McKagan, vice president of client services.

The building was design to reflect the creative spirit of the company.

The building’s form (100,000 sq. ft. spread over a single story) and construction (tilt slab warehouse–style) were selected for their cost efficiency and the flexibility to convert the structure, if necessary, to a warehouse in the future. While the interior was conceived as a “city” within a building, where the open plan office space and enclosed multi–functional rooms are all organized on a city–like street grid complete with public spaces.

As a reflection of the company’s cooperative spirit, the space was designed as an open environment with no private offices. Spaces are divided by group work style, not by corporate hierarchy. Correspondingly, the CEO has the same size workspace as any new employee, while glass doors on studios (where enclosure is mandated by function) allow the “audio architects” to see and be seen by their co–workers.

The open plan office was conceived of as a “city.”

The open layout required numerous private meeting rooms that are situated at the corners of important “street intersections” and lit by skylights. The meeting rooms and additional service facilities appear as interior “buildings” in the cityscape. Palettes of different materials distinguish the meeting rooms, with one set being varieties of wood, another metal, a third masonry, and so on. The distinctions are directional (“meet you at the cork conference room”), and also work to create “neighborhoods” within the building.

Glass enclosed audio studios allow engineers to see and be seen by their co-workers.

The building’s circulation pattern was designed to ring the interior perimeter so the entire company can share exterior windows with their views. The building opens up to its surroundings on the “park” side with maximum glass overlooking the landscape and a pond. Vertical slot windows that look like small punctures illuminate the sides of the building that face the road or parking lot.

Enclosed meeting rooms provide privacy in an open plan office.

The honest industrial character of the building is reinforced through interior details such as exposed structural elements such as HVAC, wiring trays and concrete and metal flooring. The new circular Muzak identity was integrated into many of the building’s large and small details such as the round cutouts in the entry pieces and the pegboard used to clad the exterior.