New Gannett Building Honored

Amid the inauguration hoopla, we almost missed that the gleaming new Gannett and USA Today headquarters (visible from the Dulles Toll Road) has been honored with the highest industry award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Selected as one of 35 recipients out of more than 650 nominees, the project will receive in May the AIA’s 2005 Honor Award, which recognizes work that exemplifies “excellence in architecture, interior architecture, and urban design.”

The new corporate headquarters, which sprawls over 25 acres, designed by the New York firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC, has been widely heralded and is a big change from the organization’s old cramped tear drop-shaped skyscrapers in Rosslyn, about seven miles away. Home to over 1,700 employees, the new headquarters consists of two glass-enclosed towers focused around a common town square.

The AIA Jury commented (PDF), “The massing is amazingly humane in scale for a high rise…This is the company to work for if the quality of your workplace is key…The detail and material resolution transcend the hierarchy of a corporation, giving quality place to everyone from the CEO to the individual desk…A real commitment to preserving site as amenity and storm water management.”

As DCist explains, in addition to the impressive buildings, the office park includes free parking, a health club, two basketball courts, tennis courts, a jogging trail, a softball diamond, restaurants, a bank, a credit union and a convenience store.

Let’s hope that the inspiring surroundings brings the paper’s pie charts to a whole new level…

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