The Boca Raton Innovation Campus is not just an office complex. It is a piece of history that blends a major technology advancement with an iconic architectural design.
The former IBM building was designed by Marcel Breuer and Thomas Gatje in the Brutalist style of architecture. The buildings, developed 56 years ago in Boca Raton, feature a unique Y-shaped design, considered an engineering marvel for their day.
The building is important for more than its aesthetic, too. Architects designed the structure to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, a visionary advancement considering the region’s subsequent history with storms.
Protecting the IBM workspace from the elements was critical. This property, known as IBM’s North American Research and Development facility, was built for administration and product testing, development labs, manufacturing and distribution.
On March 31, 1970, 3,500 people, led by IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson Jr., attended the ceremonial dedication of the new facility, according to IBM’s website.
Over time IBM dominated the city, and “wild ducks” flew high in Boca Raton. That was the nickname of a small group of engineers, marketing experts and communications specialists led by Philip “Don” Estridge and who were known to break rules and think creatively.
Estridge’s flock designed the first personal computer, which was introduced in 1981.
Estridge died Aug. 2, 1985, in the crash of DeltaFlight 191 in Dallas due to stormy weather that highlighted dangers from wind shear for aircrafts. A former IBM building became theDon Estridge High Tech Middle School, named in his honor.
By the mid-1980s, IBM employed nearly 10,000 people at this site and in office buildings clustered in the area. But by the end of that decade, IBM had stopped manufacturing at the site, moving this function to North Carolina. Then the software development team moved to Texas.
After historic role, ex-IBM property traded hands several times
With employment dwindling, IBM sold the property for $46 million in 1996. The property became the Blue Lake Corporate Center, then the T-Rex Corporate Center, when an ownership group bought it from the Blue Lake group for $138.65 million in 2000.
Private equity fundBlackstone Group bought the site for $192.7 million in 2005, then sold it for an undisclosed amount to another ownership group in 2015.
An investment group led by CP Partners then purchase the property for $179 million in 2018. In 2021, some partners in the group were bought out by New York-based DRA Advisors, which paid $320 million for the stake.
Although BRiC has historic value, it does not have a historic designation from either the city of Boca Raton (which could limit any change to the buildings) or the National Register of Historic Places.
Alexandra Clough is a business writer at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. X: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: How IBM’s former Boca Raton campus helped launch a tech revolution
Reporting by Alexandra Clough, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Alexandra Clough, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
