The former Merck & Co. headquarters building is a

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

located in the Whitehouse Station section of

Readington Township, New Jersey Readington Township is a township located in the easternmost portion of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 16,126, reflecting an increase of 323 (+2.0%) from the 15,803 ...

, United States. It was designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, LLC in the late 1980s for the Merck & Co.

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

company. Over the years it became well known for its various environmentally friendly features. On October 9, 2012, Merck & Co. announced that starting in 2014 it would move its headquarters to the

Schering-Plough Schering-Plough Corporation was an American pharmaceutical company. It was originally the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization, it becam ...

site (formerly belonging to Ciba, Ciba-Geigy and Novartis) in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

, acquired in the November 2009 acquisition of Schering, and planned to close the Whitehouse Station headquarters building upon completion of the move in 2015. In October, 2013 Merck & Co. reversed course and said its headquarters would move to

Kenilworth, New Jersey Kenilworth is a borough in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 7,914, On July 12, 2018,

UNICOM Global UNICOM Global is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in Mission Hills, California. The company was founded by Corry Hong in Los Angeles, California in 1981 to develop AUTOMON/CICS and related products for the CICS main ...

announced that their division UNICOM Corporation had signed an agreement with Merck & Co. to purchase the entire Merck property at Whitehouse Station, with the acquisition expected to close in October, 2018. The completion of the acquisition was announced on October 1, 2018. The property was renamed UNICOM Science and Technology Park (USTP).UNICOM Global
"UNICOM Global acquires the Merck Property Located at Whitehouse Station, New Jersey"
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'', October 1, 2018. Accessed October 24, 2018.

Building history

Constructed in 1990 as a home for the headquarters staff of Merck & Co., the building is most recognizable for its hexagon shape and its nature setting. The main building was constructed with a wide clearing at its center, filled with old-growth trees saved during the construction phase. Further, Merck & Co. placed the parking structure underground and created a temporary nursery on-site for the trees removed during construction, in order to make the facility a "corporate cottage in the woods". The building was originally set on of property and has since been expanded to a campus with auxiliary buildings. The initial site plan foresaw the subsequent addition of two buildings to create a grid of three connected hexagons, however, after a change in management, it was indicated that further construction in the original style would not occur. Instead a conventional office block was built adjacent to it known as "Whitehouse Station West". In the center of the building there is a park with a small lawned sitting area containing a statue given by Merck Germany. Prior to moving to this location, the Merck & Co. headquarters was located in

Rahway Rahway () is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is southwest of Manhattan ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. The Whitehouse Station campus is located on an old dairy farm and the surrounding area is known as a more suburban/rural setting than the area around the Rahway campus. As a result, Merck & Co. included amenities such as on-site

child-care Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

, a

fitness center A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health ser ...

baseball field A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

s, and a medical services center for employees.

Solar initiative

In 2008, Merck & Co. installed a 1.6-

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

solar power system consisting of 7,000 panels on of property. Among the largest installations at a corporate headquarters, the system is also the largest ground-mounted solar power tracking system east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. In all, it will provide 7% of the site's power and is expected to "reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1,300 tons per year."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merck and Co. Headquarters Office buildings completed in 1990 Buildings and structures in Hunterdon County, New Jersey Headquarters in the United States Merck & Co. Modernist architecture in New Jersey Readington Township, New Jersey Roche-Dinkeloo buildings 1990 establishments in New Jersey