KOAT-tV

ALBUQUERQUE, NM

The KOAT building, a subsidiary of Hearst, designed by Antoine Predock in 1979, sits at the intersection of Carlisle Avenue and Comanche Road. Originally, the building was designed to accommodate the news production using film, which required dark, segmented spaces to preserve film quality. With a technological shift into digital news production, the requirements for the building have changed, which now include light-filled and collaborative spaces.

M+Y was tasked with transforming the building to draw in light, offer visual transparency in the news-making process, and represent a new era of news production in Albuquerque, NM. The newsroom in particular will play a vital role in showcasing this new efficient and high-synthesis operation required for producing news stories in the present day.

The news team is highly technical and needs to constantly communicate among one another throughout a news cycle, thus calling for fine-tuning of seating and access, as well as variability and reconfigurability to accommodate the shifting needs of the KOAT team throughout the day.

The mission of this project is to guide bring in a new era of news-making in a built form and reflect the identity of KOAT. Contemporary updates of the space meet the current and future needs of newsmakers, instilling a sense of ownership and pride among the team, and assuring the public that their news source is up-to-date with technology.