LINKEDIN SUNNYVALE PRODUCTION CENTER

LINKEDIN SUNNYVALE PRODUCTION CENTER

The design of the 11,000 SF studio for LinkedIn’s Media Productions team included two sound stages, audio recording studios, green rooms, editing studios, and VIP reception lounges with conference areas and open-plan workspaces for creative collaboration. The project achieves NC- 20 noise criteria for HVAC and NC-25 for sound isolation.

• Client LinkedIn Corporation

• Project Type Commercial, Video Production

• Location Sunnyvale, California, USA

• Project Size 11,032 sq ft

• Completion Date 2022

• Services Architecture, Technical Consulting Architect, Programming, Construction Administration, Recording Studio Consultant

• Architect of Record Interdisciplinary Architecture, Tim Gorter Architects

• Design Team Tim Gorter Architects; Dustin Stephens MOA; Alan Ho MOA

• General Contractor Dome Construction

• Structural Engineer Thornton Tomasetti

• Mechanical Engineer ARC Engineering

• Electrical Engineer ARC Engineering

• Plumbing Engineer ARC Engineering

• Fire Protection Engineer Pribuss Engineering

• Acoustical Consultant Newson Brown Acoustics

• Audio Video Consultant BJL Technology Consultants

• Technology Consultant BJL Technology Consultants

• Broadcast Technology Consultant David Carroll Associates

• Lighting Consultant Ann Kale Associates

• Environmental Graphic Designer Media Objectives

• Client Representative Keystone

• Photography W Architectural Photography

DESIGNING FOR POST-PANDEMIC AGE

The studio is designed to foster creativity and support highly technical video production processes, all while keeping employees safe in the post-pandemic age. The design seamlessly blends workspaces for visioning, storyboarding, and workshopping with state-of-the-art studio environments, bringing creative and technical teams under one roof to streamline video-on-demand and live broadcast content production.

THE GARAGE: CREATIVE WORKSHOP

The heart of the new studio is The Garage, a fresh take on the traditional meeting room that offers employees a place where they can think creatively and ideate freely. The design picks up on the West Coast tradition of great ideas being born in garages—think Apple and Microsoft—to offer a one-of-a-kind conference room. A giant bi-fold door opens into the polished concrete space, offering a refined update on the no-frills garage aesthetic.

EMBRACING SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability was a key driver of the design. The retrofit re-uses the entire core and shell of the existing building and makes interventions as required to optimize the acoustic environment, minimizing carbon impact. The only change to the building skin was the garage door, and the interiors are planned around the existing restroom core, allowing it to stay in place and reducing the amount of new construction.

SHOWCASING FILM AND AUDIO HISTORY

Throughout the interiors, environmental graphics reference the history and science of film-making and audio-editing, imbuing the workspaces with a sense of craft and tradition. In one hallway, a lenticular graphic set for 24 frames per second at walking speed shows early moving pictures studies of the body in motion. Another shows a visualization of sound waves. The conference room names are all inspired by terms from film and editing history: there is the Blockbuster Room, Betacam Room, Technicolor Room, and the Muybridge Conference Room, named after Eadward Muybridge, pioneer of photographic motion studies best known for his animated images of a horse in gallop and early photographs of San Francisco and Yosemite.