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Disney Headquarters Case Study

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Creating a Unified Workspace and Culture for Disney in Downtown NYC

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Dave Burk - SOM © 2024 Disney 19
Dave Burk - SOM © 2024 Disney 20
Dave Burk - SOM © 2024 Disney 23
Dave Burk - SOM © 2024 Disney 11
Built EnvironmentBuilt Environment

Industry

Corporate Offices

Location

New York

Disney partnered with Trinity Consultants to bring many different business units together into one campus, fostering collaboration in a flexible environment that was ready to meet a wide range of needs.

Vision

When Disney elected to move its NYC headquarters from midtown to downtown, it was more than a change in location. The company aimed to bring its disparate New York business units into one flexible, collaborative facility. Disney wanted to combine the individual workflows, collaboration platforms, and tools each unit was using and create a unified, productive workplace and culture.

To accomplish this, Trinity established strategy pillars that mapped to Disney’s project drivers and would guide the team’s efforts during the seven-year project. The pillars were defined to provide a ubiquitous, frictionless, and self-supporting experience built with scalability, reliability, and resilience.

Partnership

The Trinity team worked with the larger project team to ensure Disney’s needs were met. For instance, Trinity collaborated with the architectural team on a Great Room on the building’s 10th floor where all elevators to other floors met, letting employees across business units build community in the shared space. Trinity acoustics experts worked closely with the project’s mechanical team and manufacturers in testing the building’s systems to make sure they didn’t interfere with noise levels in any of the spaces.

Trinity also worked closely with Disney’s own stakeholders. Because the NYC subway ran just 30 feet from the building’s planned subterranean production facilities, Trinity consultants simulated the subway’s sounds and vibration in a blind study for the Disney team to make sure it wouldn’t disrupt work. They ran similar studies for noise levels between studios and other spaces to make sure sounds didn’t interfere with production or other activity.

Services Preformed

Trinity supported Disney’s headquarters relocation through advanced acoustic engineering and environmental modeling. The team conducted detailed sound isolation assessments and vibration simulations to address challenges posed by the building’s proximity to the NYC subway and to ensure seamless operation within production areas. Close collaboration with design and mechanical teams enabled integrated noise mitigation at the structural and systems levels, supporting Disney’s goals for a unified and productive workplace.

Value-Add

Disney wanted a space that was flexible, unified, and ready for anything today or in the future, and Trinity delivered.

Thanks to acoustic mitigation at the structural, building, and individual room levels, subway noise and sound between spaces doesn’t interfere with work in each area. Early engagement of the right stakeholders means they understand the impact of acoustics on any future changes to the building’s spaces.

Employees of all the building’s business units can now come together in spaces built with a wireless-first technology approach, self-supporting meeting capabilities and unified technology platforms that let them stay focused on the work at hand.

Disney’s team will be able to maintain that level of productivity in the future as well. Because of Trinity’s expertise and long history in the industry, the team knew that proactively developing project pillars based on Disney’s project drivers would keep the years-long project on its intended path, guiding their testing, analysis, proofs-of-concept, and decisions along the way.

Over the course of the project, expectations and business needs did shift, but Trinity’s foresight and flexibility have minimized the impact. From technology to workflows, strategic analysis makes planning for more changes in the future less daunting.

“We always prioritize future resilience. We plan for inevitable change and design infrastructure that avoids boxing ourselves into a corner so any changes will be easier and less impactful.”

Peter Babigian | Trinity Consultants
Principal for Client Development and Technology Design