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IBM Headquarters — Entrance Pavilion and Site Enhancement

Armonk, New York
Completed 1985

Lead Designer: I. M. Pei

2-story Entrance Pavilion, Gatehouse and Site Enhancement
 

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This project was commissioned by IBM to provide a new entrance for its existing headquarters, which had been executed 20 years earlier by another architect. The goal was to improve access and security while respecting, and augmenting, corporate identity.

The original second-story entrance, reached by long concrete ramps, was replaced by an octagonal glass structure — a garden pavilion — that rises from the ground to a cupola over sixty feet high. The complements the original building in its use iof the same tapered, precast concrete columns. The strategy makes for an integrated whole while creating a more focal and highly visible entrance, taking full advantage of the sprawling corporate grounds to make an inviting transition between outside and in.

The interior greets visitors with framed views of the outdoors and natural light that animates and constantly changes the space with each cloud, hour and season, passing through the pyramidal steel skylight and triangular aluminum sunscreens to cast complex patterns of light and shadow. Nature is balanced against the carefully detailed built environment.

In addition to the entrance, a new gatehouse was erected and new security installed. The site was also enhanced with new paths, roadways and plantings so that visitors now arrive at the headquarters along a tree-lined ceremonial drive.

Major Components

8,800 s/f pavilion; 270 s/f link to existing building; 300 s/f gatehouse

I. M. Pei & Partners services

Site Planning; Complete Architectural Services

Structural

Weiskopf & Pickworth, New York, NY

Mechanical / Electrical

Joseph R. Loring & Associates, New York, NY

Landscape

Hanna/Olin, Philadelphia, PA

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