The commute to Major League Soccer’s new Manhattan headquarters culminates in a tunnel modeled on the players’ path to the field. Barrel-shaped and sheathed in a custom mesh weave that recalls a goalkeeper’s net, the elevator lobby at PENN 2 carries color-changing lights and ceiling-mounted LED screens programmable for visiting clubs, partners, and sponsors. Coinciding with the league’s 30th anniversary year, the 126,000-square-foot Midtown workplace designed by TPG Architecture is attuned to the rhythms of tension and release that define a match.
Photography by Eric Laignel
The concept of an “office as a stadium” emerged early, in ideation sessions with the league’s commissioner, former players, coaches, and long-standing employees. Each group arrived with its own emphasis, whether history, the athletes, or the bond with supporters, but their conversations converged on the stadium as the place where those different parts of the sport come together.
Photography by Eric Laignel
TPG Architecture also looked to “The Beautiful Game,” soccer’s longtime nickname, a nod to the artistry and spontaneity of its play. “Our designs echo this quality through fluid forms that carve graceful but natural movements through the space, anchored in moments of emphasis and flair,” say TPG creative director Chelsea Rowe and managing executive Suzette Subance.
Photography by Eric Laignel
Arrival Sequence
Beyond the tunnel, reception opens onto a lineup of mannequins dressed in each club’s current jersey. Facing them, the MLS Cup, previously without a permanent display, now stands on a central pedestal against a lit wall of past champions, with room for titles yet to come. Three full-height media screens nearby are dedicated to club, country, and community, the league’s guiding pillars. Each championship is recorded with the winning team, players, and score.
“It gives fans a place to stop, take a photo, and remember the excitement of the final game,” says Gladys Yue, TPG Architecture managing executive.
Photography by Eric Laignel
MLS branding extends into the materials, where TPG Architecture borrowed from the trophy itself, pairing metallic surfaces with gold-edged trim and cutting thin lines of light to suggest the gleam of the ribbons on its handle. Forty-five-degree transitions recur across both floors to shape forms, shift between finishes, and define space, a geometry derived from the angle in the MLS shield, which the designers associate with a game’s two 45-minute halves.
Photography by Eric Laignel
A core palette of white and silver with black accents was conceived as a neutral base for club identity and fan expression. On the reception floor, a custom display of 212 soccer cleats, painted the league’s signature blue and arranged as a banner, nods to the city’s area code.
The Midfield
A feature stair links the two floors, descending through a double-height opening to a café concourse below. An LED ticker band wraps the curved edge of the slab, echoing the digital boards at the edge of play, while a mirrored ceiling overhead repeats the shape of the opening, an effect the design team likens to a stadium, where the “action is above.”
Photography by Eric Laignel
Named for the heart of the pitch, the Midfield occupies the center of each long, rectangular floorplate, a layout TPG Architecture planned to draw together departments that once worked in isolation. A dugout-style IT support bar and employee amenities sit among huddle rooms, meeting rooms, and open collaboration areas, marked by bright green surfaces divided by white bands scaled to real field markings.
Photography by Eric Laignel
Custom fixtures trace the center circle, while acoustic ceiling features are modeled on the studs beneath a cleat. “They are intended to be mutually shared space and a point of connection across each end of the floor,” Rowe and Subance explain.
Photography by Eric Laignel
Light fixtures over the open neighborhoods are patterned on the original 1996 MLS match ball. On the lower floor, a wall of historic game balls begins with the one from the league’s inaugural game, while a locker room-inspired conference room hung with jerseys and a series of club-branded phone booths give every team a corner of its own.
Photography by Eric Laignel
Supporters’ groups hand-paint tifos, the towering banners raised in the stands before a match, and TPG Architecture brought that tradition indoors with 30 installations distributed throughout the workspace, each representing a different team and fan base. They carry the Midfield’s vivid color into areas meant for concentration. “It’s more than decoration,” Yue says. “It brings the spirit of the supporters into the workplace, cheering the staff on as they work.”
Photography by Eric Laignel
