Square Feet: 3,300
Location: Manhattan, NY

TED Conferences’ mission is to disseminate “ideas worth spreading.” The program included multiple meeting areas and open offices that would create a place where ideas and communication flow continuously and freely. 

This could not be done with a corporate office layout of rows and cubicles. However, systems that distribute data, media, lighting and communication impose certain restraints. By elevating the systems in steel channels suspended from the ceiling plane, the floor was opened up to accommodate different forms of working spaces. The colorful graphic of the channel system is echoed below in coded program areas. A conference room grew organically out of a windowed corner; its orientation allows for inclusion in the open office while a sliding wall closes the space for large private meetings. Smaller meetings spaces are inserted around the perimeter in corners and between work station spines. Editing suites and phone booths are isolated from the main space for acoustic control and confidentiality.