SORA West was designed to be the new Living Room of Conshohocken by inserting an open public space into the urban fabric merging work experiences with community activities. Centered on a public Central Lawn, the SORA West development is framed by a corporate headquarters to the north, a refurbished 1800’s firehouse and hotel to the south and a garage and outdoor stage to the west. At the project’s core is a new 450,000 square foot office building, AmerisourceBergen’s new global headquarters, carefully crafted to improve the employee experience.

The Central Lawn is where the development comes to life for Conshohocken. Porous on three sides and fully open to Fayette Street, native plantings, amphitheater seating, and an outdoor stage ideal for concerts, movie nights, farmers markets, and sports events, serves a crucial purpose for both SORA West tenants and the surrounding community. The Lawn is backdropped by a glazed folded zinc garage elevator and stair tower that is dubbed The Icon, which celebrates and makes visible the vertical movement of office workers during the day and social visitors during the evenings and weekends. This “see and be seen” energy and kinetic movement is foregrounded by the adjacent historic firehouse—a historic community staple—restored as the lobby to a new hotel and a brew pub and beer garden above, blending old with new and preserving history in a truly engaging way.

The Headquarter tower’s first floor is fronted by The Porch, a covered outdoor space that functions as the northern backdrop to The Lawn, a covered colonnade for garage users to reach Fayette Street and as an outdoor transition blurring the boundaries between office lobby and amenities and outdoor green space. The conference center and cafeteria both face this “front porch”, spilling out onto the plaza and adding to the vibrancy of the street while maximizing access to natural light. The northern facing podium features a stepped and reduced massing and a masonry façade that provides a transition to the residential scaled community to the north.