Audible Wanted Optimal Acoustics, So They Set Up HQ in a Church

For many modern consumers, podcasts and audio entertainment have become a major gateway to knowledge and culture, and as widely enjoyed as music. In recent years, many brands and organizations have branched out with an audio entertainment arm. Amazon's Audible chose to house its new creative headquarters inside a refurbished former church, aptly dubbed the Innovation Cathedral.

Audible founder and CEO Don Katz envisions the 80,000-square-foot landmark building to be a cultural and tech hub as well as a driver of positive economic growth in Newark.

Since relocating the company to Newark in 2007, Katz has been a highly visible figure in the city's urban development efforts, creating job training programs for locals, providing housing subsidies so that employees would move to Newark. He also established the investment fund and accelerator Newark Venture Partners to attract tech talent and support startups to set up shop in Newark—most often within the Audible buildings.

“The Innovation Cathedral is the perfect metaphor for Audible's approach here in Newark. It brings to bear the many different ways we are supporting and growing the Newark tech ecosystem," said an Audible spokesperson. “We are excited to have transformed a historic landmark into a cutting-edge workspace as a living example of how yesterday can yield to tomorrow."

That transformation purposefully preserved the building's historic bones, such as the original stained glass windows, a pipe organ, and the arched stone interior. Wooden pews on the balcony also remained intact.

The Cathedral's central gathering space is called the Auditory. The centerpiece pipe organ lends aesthetic flair to the theater-style space, where Audible hosts large meetings, community gatherings, readings, and shows. Audible Studios and AV teams designed the control booth and acoustics to the highest standards.

“We have the highest quality production value for all-hands meetings, speaker series and live productions and events," says Katz.

Other purpose-built features include flexible workspaces, quiet working and reading nooks, an exhibit space, cafe-style social gathering hubs, and even a bowling alley for blowing off steam.

“There are 400 technologists (focused on areas including user experience and consumer technology) based in the Innovation Cathedral. This team is passionate about developing fantastic customer experiences that reflect our commitment to changing people's lives through the power of the spoken word," a spokesperson for Audible explained when asked how much of the company would relocate from the larger One Washington Park office nearby.

The two buildings are intended to complement each other and increase Audible's capabilities to serve their staff and support the community from a cultural standpoint.

“Washington Park is our front yard, and we're very invested in its success. This summer we unveiled the Sensory Lab, a pop-up installation brought to life by local artists, and launched event programming including yoga, a community vendors market, cross-fit, and summer dance parties."

Newark is only 15 miles away from New York City—which clocks in at about the same distance as JFK airport to Manhattan's Lower East Side—but has been slow to benefit from a cultural or lifestyle boost the same way that, for example, Oakland did as a more approachable neighborhood of San Francisco. Although Don Katz doesn't think Newark will become over-gentrified or unaffordable, he sees great potential for the city to become an innovation and economic center once again, as it was during the Industrial Revolution until the 1950s. His vision may come to pass, with investors and developers bringing $4 billion in new construction, and while city officials still diligently hold space aside for affordable housing and social programs for the economically disadvantaged.

Katz says, “Our programmatic efforts to redress inequality have made Audible a better place to work and can serve as a model for other companies and cities."

In the mid-20th century, Audible's Innovation Cathedral was Second Presbyterian Church, and served a congregation of 10,000 locals. As Newark enters a new chapter, this building may become a cultural common area for the community to come together once again.