The video celebrates the Duke Energy Innovation Center at Optimist Hall, which won the 2019 Carolinas Core Project of the Year award. Housed in an 1892 gingham‑mill building, the project preserved historic features such as over 250 original windows and 256 heart‑pine columns, showcasing a commitment to urban heritage. The interior is organized into collaborative “neighborhoods” linked by “power bars,” fostering multidisciplinary work. Agile workspaces include more than 100 whiteboards, sit‑stand desks, a loft quiet area, a game room, specialty coffee stations, and an adjacent food hall, all designed to energize employees. The site benefits from excellent transit connectivity, with light‑rail access to Uptown Charlotte within ten minutes, reinforcing its integration into the urban fabric. The narrative emphasizes the building’s transformation from a potential demolition target into a vibrant, award‑winning workplace that blends history, design, and employee well‑being.
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Coronet Carolina's 2019 Project of the Year, over 50,000 square feet. Congratulations, Duke Energy Innovation Center at Optimist Hall.
This is the Innovation Center at Optimist Hall. This is Such a departure from any Duke Energy space that you will see anywhere else. It is truly a creative environment. The factory space that we're standing in right now is the original building, so it was built in 1892. That's really the main focus for production work on a day-to-day basis.
It was the largest gingham producer in the country. So if you look here, you have little nods to the history of this historic mill. There are over 250 windows around the perimeter that were all blocked in that had to be removed by hand and then rebuilt in the same history.
There's 256 columns that we had to work around. They're 500-year-old heart of pine, so there's a lot of character with this building. It could have been bulldozed and more multifamily housing put over it, but to save this and be part of the urban fabric was truly amazing.
We strategically planned the space to support multidisciplinary groups coming together to work in what we call neighborhoods. That's where all of our teammates sit. The space is broken up by what we call power bars. Those are clusters of collaboration space that support those different neighborhoods.
It was efficiently done, but also this space was created for agile groups, people that work. You see over 100 whiteboards here. They have stand-up huddles. They move quickly. You can either be here at your sit-stand desk with your headphones on that are sound isolating, or you can go upstairs in the loft and be in a very quiet place.
You have a game room. You've got your different types of coffees. You've got a food hall directly adjacent that people can go and sit in and work. It's got a connection back to our history at Duke Energy. Ready Kilowatt was actually a government marketing material that all power companies had the opportunity to use.
We looked at various places. Obviously, the history of here was one of the key things, but then the rail itself, the light rail accessibility to Uptown Charlotte. Within 10 minutes you can be back and forth. What I get out of this place is the level of energy. It's awesome. And, you know, it's the kind of place that I want to be working in because at the end of the day you go actually home energized versus tired.
Congratulations, Duke Energy Innovation Center at Optimist Hall, the Cordette Carolina's 2019 Project of the Year.
