Public Broadcast Headquarters

A public broadcast facility seeks to educate, engage, inspire, inform, and entertain through multiple media outlets. Since 1960, these outlets have created a community that invites all to engage and participate, promoting a culture of belonging. Located in the Harwood district of Downtown Dallas, the publicly funded broadcast center’s neighbors are a stark contrast to the cultural and equitable community broadcaster is defined by. The current facility, both difficult to locate and difficult to access, gives the impression of being closed off and uninviting. Harwood’s continued redevelopment has provided the broadcast facility with a unique opportunity to reposition itself within the district in a way that celebrates its content and highlights its accessibility and connection to the greater public. In its new proposed location adjacent to the Katy Trail between McKinnon Street and Harry Hines Boulevard, the building design responds thoughtfully to the vehicular and pedestrian experience. The new site is situated high above the adjacent trail and streets. In response, the design takes advantage of the height in a way that encompasses and protects rather than bearing down on visitors. The footprint wraps down and embraces the trail in an ultimate gesture of welcoming. This creates a refuge off the busy path and streets by encapsulating park-like space with amphitheater seating that can be used for performances or just moments of pause and reflection. The building itself towers high enough to be seen by traffic speeding past on Harry Hines while terracing down in a way that brings it back to a pedestrian scale. The program captures the opportunity garnered by this height with an immense projection across the façade that can be seen by both driver and pedestrian – showcasing their content in the ultimate form of public broadcast. The breezeway piercing through the program directly on axis to Harwood acts as an invitational gateway that draws people back and forth from the Katy Trail and the Harwood district while making the broadcast center an imminent destination on either journey. The overall building design accommodates a wide variety of spaces from performance spaces and educational spaces to collaborative work and broadcast studios. Focusing on creating a sense of welcoming inclusion and community, the lines between public and private are subtly woven into the spaces. The client’s key message of ‘belonging’ weaves itself into every facet of the design.