The Summit at Danbury, formerly known as the Matrix Corporate Center and before that as the Union Carbide Corporate Center, is an architecturally unique building in
Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut.
Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...
.
It was constructed in 1982 as the headquarters of the
Union Carbide
Union Carbide Corporation is an American chemical corporation wholly owned subsidiary (since February 6, 2001) by Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers befor ...
chemical
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...
company, it is known for its unusual style and floorplan layout. The complex was designed by the late famous architect
Kevin Roche
Eamonn Kevin Roche (June 14, 1922 – March 1, 2019) was an Irish-born American Pritzker Prize-winning architect. He was responsible for the design/master planning for over 200 built projects in both the U.S. and abroad. These projects i ...
who also designed other famous corporate headquarters.
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History
In 1976, Union Carbide announced that it intended to relocate from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to a location in Connecticut.
After beginning construction in 1980,
Union Carbide moved its approximately 3,000 staff members to the facility in 1983.
Following several corporate realignments,
space was rented out to several different companies after a 1986
leaseback
Leaseback, short for "sale-and-leaseback", is a financial transaction in which one sells an asset and leases it back for the long term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it. The transaction is generally done f ...
arrangement transferred ownership to a Florida company. This resulted in the facility being renamed the Corporate Center in 1992.
Following the purchase of Union Carbide by
The Dow Chemical Company
The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world.
Dow manufactures plastics ...
in 2001, the Union Carbide staff was further reduced and more space sublet to other companies. In 2007 the building was sold to
Grubb & Ellis
Newmark Group Inc. is a commercial real estate advisory and services firm headquartered in New York City. It operates as ''Newmark'', and is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "NMRK".
The company’s services include Capi ...
for $80 million,
less than half its original construction cost of $190 million. In 2009, the building was resold to Matrix Reality Group for $72.4 million. Matrix Realty Group, Inc., the new owner of the building, carried out several renovations, such as new granite in the Main Reception area and in other parts of the building, and renamed it the Matrix Corporate Center.
In 2018, Matrix was sold to Summit Development, a real estate developer based in
Southport, Connecticut
Southport is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Fairfield, Connecticut. It is located along Long Island Sound between Mill River and Sasco Brook, where it borders Westport. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 1,710. Settle ...
for $18 million. The complex was renamed to reflect the new ownership, and is being renovated to include luxury apartments in multiple wings. The existing office space is being renovated as well, and now includes new restaurants and an expanded gym/health center.
Architecture
The move to the country was a trend away from densely crowded downtowns, like
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. The layout of the building is unique in that the entire building rests on 5,000 pillars driven into the ground at heights of , to avoid having to clear the land of obstacles.
The structure as a whole consists of 15 interconnected buildings around a central core.
Additionally, the outer walls of the building face into the forest while the interior walls face a completely enclosed 2,500-space parking garage.
The building was designed with several pods for the then divisions of Union Carbide that would occupy the facility. Further, it was set up so that each office was very close, sometimes only 10 feet (3 m), from its related parking spot and that employees would not need to exit the building to perform any functions.
In the center of the complex are several conference rooms, libraries, a cafeteria, and other support services. Each room in the 2.1 million-square-foot (195,000 m
2) complex, 1.3 million (117,000 m
2) of which is office space,
has separate temperature controls and natural light through a series of translucent windows. The building sits on a campus which has been subdivided over the years and now also hosts jogging trails and
condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
s.
References
External links
Grubb & Ellis reportOfficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Summit at Danbury, The
Office buildings in Connecticut
Dow Chemical Company
Commercial buildings completed in 1982
Headquarters in the United States
Companies based in Danbury, Connecticut
Buildings and structures in Danbury, Connecticut
Buildings and structures in Fairfield County, Connecticut
1982 establishments in Connecticut
Business parks of the United States