Gensler Spotlight: South Central U.S.

The telecom titan’s global headquarters, sited in a cluster of downtown buildings, took a civic-minded turn when Gensler Dallas reimagined its central plaza as the AT&T Discovery District: a 24/7 media-activated amenity space with dining and retail destinations plus a publicly accessible park for use by staffers and locals alike. The ambition, principal Barry Hand explains, was to “create a network of connected experiences across a complex physical ecosystem.”

Serving as a sort of portal to this four-block culture zone is the 37-story headquarters tower, whose nearly 20,000-square-foot lobby, visible through a 30-by-60-foot stretch of glass, dissolves the boundary between architecture and media—an approach that unifies the campus. The bi-level space, ringed by an oculus-shape mezzanine with glass balustrade, is activated by more than 70 million pixels. “Every surface, including eight LED-wrapped columns and a 40-foot-wide media display, becomes a canvas,” says project manager Justin Rankin, a member of Gensler’s emergent digital experience design practice area. Even the ceiling is a screen, a stretched-fabric membrane backlit by a low-resolution LED grid, enabling an utterly immersive experience. The elevations showcase data-driven visualizations, branded content, and a rotating collection of digital art by the likes of Refik Anadol and Moment Factory, all accompanied by custom soundscapes. Here, there’s no such thing as too much screen time.

Gensler: Barry Hand; Ross Conway; Justin Rankin; Christian Lehmkuhl; Stephen Walsh; Kelley Hyatt; Adam Tate; Lars Berg; Andrew Triplett; Jo Pang