Corporate Headquarters
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InterActiveCorp. Headquarters

Architects: Gehry Partners, STUDIOS Architecture (interiors)
Acoustics: Shen Milsom & Wilke, New York City
Size: 165,000 square feet
Completion: Autumn 2006

InterActiveCorp. (IAC) is a new-media conglomerate with more than 60 brands, including Ask.com, Evite, the Home Shopping Network, Match.com, and more. The company’s striking new headquarters, designed by Frank Gehry, puts these diversified brands beneath one roof.

Shen Milsom & Wilke’s acoustic work included, first, an extensive environmental noise survey of the site. First priority was to minimize noise penetrations through the building’s glass walls from Tenth Avenue. The final composition of the wall is two ¼-inch layers of laminated glass with a ½-inch airspace in between.

Exhaust air from the garage was slated to exit at ground level in the middle of the building’s garden amenity. Shen Milsom & Wilke’s acousticians elevated the vent to above the ground level and added duct silencers.

The irregular floor plates and unusual spaces created by the building’s fluctuating envelope created some interior acoustic challenges. In addition, glass lights and clerestory windows in the demising walls between offices, and the building’s all glass walls are all sound-reflecting surfaces that create reverberation and sound penetration among adjacent spaces. To give office workers privacy, Shen Milsom & Wilke optimized workstation furniture, office ceiling finishes, specified a laminated glass for the clerestory and side lights, and a special insulated panel to fit into the perimeter convector trough at the executive floors.

Sound-absorbent finishes within the conference and board rooms include fabric-wrapped acoustical panels, and ceilings made of Barrisol fabric, StarSilent, and Decoustics’ Claro materials. The open, two-story lobby is quieted with StarSilent acoustic ceilings.

InterActiveCorp. Headquarters is a winner of the 2007 BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards.

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