RTI International Office Building | Research Triangle Park, NC

The 190,000-sq.-ft., six-story office building—the largest on RTI’s campus—features a variety of collaboration spaces for colleagues, visitors and business and university research partners. The ground and second floor levels are the most public and allow for impromptu encounters among colleagues and visitors. The first floor lobby hosts the heritage center, which highlights the institution’s history and achievements, and leads to RTI’s new cafeteria with outdoor garden seating and a 300-person multipurpose space. The second floor collaboration center provides a wide variety of flexible spaces designed to allow employees to work together as best suits their needs and process with diverse configurations and types of seating and conferencing. The second-floor collaboration and meeting spaces are open to everyone on campus. A terrace overlooking RTI’s softball field and the landscape beyond encourages a connection to the outdoors for occupants. An adjacent, four-story parking structure provides approximately 650 spaces. The new headquarters building offers many amenities for staff and visitors while serving as a central gathering place for events and collaboration at RTI.

In an effort to provide quality through innovation, the DPR project team coordinated with RTI's staff members by bringing in an Oculus Rift to view mechanical spaces. Using augmented reality prior to final design allowed RTI's staff members to determine the best access points for maintenance of mechanical equipment. Another innovative process involved working with all aspects of plumbing design with the architect and plumbing trade partner to provide prefabricated plumbing to the building. The plumbing trade partner was able to coordinate early, design and prefabricate the underground and bathroom plumbing piping; resulting in a cleaner installation, precise tie into existing piping and eliminating the need for rework.