Shrouded in a scrim of weathered, perforated steel, EMIT Technologies’ headquarters outside Sheridan, Wyoming pioneers a new, place-based approach to campus planning. Weaving together cutting-edge technology and a community-focused ethos, the structure exemplifies the people and raw materials involved in the making process. At nearly 120,000 square-feet the campus consolidates the operations of four existing metal fabrication facilities and introduces new amenities accessible to over 100 employees as well as the general public. Designed to encourage moments of interaction, the building acts like a circulatory system drawing different user groups – recent transplants, long-tenured craftsmen, and the general public – to filter and intermingle through shared spaces and entries. Building on their shared Wyoming heritage, CLB and EMIT collaborated to craft a campus intimately tied to the Rocky Mountain West, which can continue to serve as a social, commercial, and industrial hub for the greater Sheridan community.
Originally a concrete block KMart, the campus was reenvisioned into a world-class facility aimed to attract new talent and fold them into an established community of Wyoming locals. With equal attention paid to the overall vision and masterplanning and the finest material details, the existing 80,000 square-foot building was adaptively reused into a state-of-the-art fabrication facility. The form is addressed both additively and subtractively, creating a synergized, consolidated structure that encourages non-hierarchical relationships between office employees and factory staff. The machine floor is accessible by a pivot-point from the office headquarters, which reflects this spatial dichotomy in its interior finishes by playing raw, industrial materials against more elevated, streamlined, and hard-wearing surfaces. Many of the furnishings and details were specially fabricated by EMIT, including workstations, chairs, and ceiling panels and screens made from birch plywood and powder coated black steel. A scarf-like steel façade, also custom-fabricated and engineered by EMIT, weaves the structure’s additive exterior into a unified whole. Suspended away from the surface of the building, this laser-perforated scrim forges a transparent-yet-tactile connection between the campus’s outward appearance, and the materials and methods used in the manufacturing within. The structure’s rectilinear massing is gouged by a glazed courtyard, or “lung,” which disseminates light and air into adjacent office and collaboration spaces.
As the suspended steel facade lifts upward, a main entrance welcomes employees and general public alike into a generous, shared lobby. Auditorium and flex spaces allow the Sheridan community to utilize the campus for their own classes and events. Employee amenities including a coffee shop, basketball court and gym, locker rooms, barber shop, and library space provide activated opportunities to cross-pollinate and exchange ideas across the “no collar” workforce. Rugged but not individualist, the EMIT headquarters embodies the pioneering spirit and redefines notions of “campus” to engage more deeply with the people, place, and raw materials that make the work possible.
Now located outside of the EMIT headquarters, FILTER was originally created for Design Pavilion and the NYCxDesign Festival. The pavilion’s chapel-like design facilitates a new understanding of place, providing each occupant the chance to explore their own relationship with the natural world. Following the closure of the NYCxDesign festival, the pavilion was carefully disassembled and transported back to Wyoming to continue its life as a public sculpture at EMIT’s headquarters and enjoyed for generations to come. EMIT is responsible for the steel prefabrication and is the exhibit patron.