United Technologies Digital Offices – New York City

United Technologies Corporation is grafting together the old and new as the 100-year-old company rolls out its Digital division and moves into a freshly renovated warehouse in Brooklyn that creatively ties the tradition of the past with the digital innovation of the future.

Gensler recently completed the design for the United Technologies Digital offices located in the Brooklyn of New York City, New York.

A nearly 100-year-old company, United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is an industry pioneer and a 24-year fixture on the Fortune 500 list. At its core, UTC is global technology company that is intensely focused on serving customers across two major industries – commercial buildings and aviation. To do that, UTC is constantly seeking new ways to add value to the customer experience and digital is a significant enabler to achieve that goal.

Last year, UTC formed United Technologies Digital, a globally-connected community of experts that span across all four UTC businesses and focused on accelerating the digitization of UTC and its respective industries.

As part of this initiative, UTC invested a 67,000-square-foot space in Brooklyn, New York that would accelerate and expand UTC’s digital capabilities and help to rapidly drive new forms of value for customers with greater agility and speed.

The space, which will eventually house 250 employees, is located in a renovated warehouse within Empire Stores in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn along the East River. The floors boast original pine columns, brick walls, and expansive sightlines through arched windows. The design embraces the space’s original architecture to uniquely express UTC’s heritage and its evolution to digital. Upon entering the space, a three-tiered bleacher and canteen space—known as “The Park”—invites employees to gather for all large- and small-scale meetings. Reimagined as an extension of the nearby Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Park hosts natural design elements including hung planters and green walls.

Amenity spaces include the canteen, a bar, a game room, two quiet cars, two interview rooms, a 20-person board room, and a flexible multi-purpose room to host training sessions and meetings. Open to public view, a command center displays UTC’s products and an interactive digital screen to symbolize the intersection of digital and industrial product. The mechanical room, a space traditionally hidden from view, was designed with surrounding glass fronts and a green wall to display the activation of UTC’s product.

Design thinking and user experience maker labs showcase products across the company’s business units including Carrier, Pratt & Whitney and UTC Aerospace Systems. Each space incorporates layers of all the design principles creating unique and meaningful experiences for employees and customers.

United Technologies Digital marks a new era for the company in a space that celebrates its industrial heritage while propelling digital innovation forward into the future.

DesignerGensler
PhotographyGarrett Rowland