Time Warner Center is a 2.8-million-square-foot, $1.7 billion, mixed-use building project located at Columbus Circle, directly across from the southwest corner of Manhattan’s Central Park. It is home to media-giant Time Warner’s corporate headquarters, accommodating 2,000 employees in nearly 1-million square feet of office and studio space, as well as live broadcast facilities for CNN, CNNfn, and other New York-based television programming. Time Warner shares the complex with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Jazz at Lincoln Center, luxury residential condominiums, upscale retail venues, restaurants, and commercial offices.

The design team’s scope of work includes many diverse and unique components, but at its core was the design of a comprehensive environmental graphics and wayfinding sign program for this headquarters facility that encompasses all building, floor, and reception area identification, office/workstation identification, conference identification, directional, informational, and regulatory signs relating to building, health, accessibility, fire, and ADA codes. Room numbering plans were developed to ensure an effective wayfinding system for employee workstation areas. Additionally, the 3 glass facades of the Prow, the building’s most striking exterior architectural feature, are wrapped with large-scale glass letters which spell Time Warner and CNN in a continuous band.

Along with the environmental graphics scope of work, the design team was responsible for branding the Center’s upscale cafeteria—Park Café, including the design of all print media, menu boards, and graphic sign elements.