| Merck & Co., Inc. World Headquarters | |
|---|---|
| MerckHQ-cropped.png Aerial view |
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| General information | |
| Type | Corporate headquarters |
| Architectural style | Modernist |
| Location | Whitehouse Station, New Jersey |
| Address | One Merck Drive |
| Construction started | 1989 |
| Completed | 1990 |
| Inaugurated | 1992 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 3[1] |
| Floor area | 1,600,000 sq ft (150,000 m2), i.e. 900,000 sq ft (84,000 m2) of office space, 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2) underground parking[2] |
| Design and construction | |
| Owner | Merck & Co. |
| Architect | Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, LLC[1] |
| Civil engineer | Clarke & Rapuano[3] |
| Other designers | Edmund Hollander and Maryanne Connelly[3] |
The Merck headquarters building is a modernist office building located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.[4] It was designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, LLC in the late 1980s for the Merck pharmaceutical company.[5] Over the years it has become well-known for its various environmentally friendly features.
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Constructed in 1990 as a home for the headquarters staff of Merck, the building is most recognizable for its hexagon shape and its nature setting.[2][3] The main building was constructed with a 600-foot (180 m) wide clearing at its center, filled with old-growth trees saved during the construction phase.[3] Further, Roche 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".[3] The building was originally set on 460 acres (190 ha) of property and has since been expanded to a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) campus with auxiliary buildings.[1][6] 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.[1][7] 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 its current location, the Merck headquarters was located in Rahway, New Jersey. The White House 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.[4][8] As a result, Merck included amenities such as on-site child-care, a fitness center, baseball fields, and a medical services center for employees.[8]
In 2008, Merck installed a 1.6-megawatt solar power system consisting of 7,000 panels on 7 acres (2.8 ha) of property.[9] 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.[10] 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."[10]