See The Office Campus Replacing Jehovah's Witnesses' Dumbo Space

DUMBO, BROOKLYN — With the transformation of the complex wrapping up, architects gave the first look this week at a massive office campus that will soon open in the waterfront space once held by the Jehovah's Witnesses for nearly five decades.

The 690,000-square-foot campus, dubbed Panorama for its cityscape views, is set to open later this year, three years after developers first bought the property for $340 million in 2016. It will bring a retail plaza, 20 outdoor spaces and 635,000 square feet of workspace to the five buildings that line the northern portion of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Architects with Gensler, who designed the complex, said this week that the new campus will open up the once introverted property, which was most recently known as the Watchtower campus since the Jehovah's Witnesses moved in in 1969.

"The redesign was about subtracting some of the things that were added over the years and showing the original character of the space," architects Robert Fuller and Amanda Carroll told a tour group Tuesday. "The result is a revitalized architectural beacon on Brooklyn’s waterfront, a community catalyst for innovation, and the next great address for the world’s most forward-thinking office and retail users."

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Three of the five buildings on the complex were built in the Civil War era, while the other two were constructed in the 1920s by Squibb Pharmaceutical.

Part of revealing that history was redoing what will become the office spaces, including a top floor in one Columbia Heights building that used to be the Jehovah's Witnesses broadcast studio space.

(Max Touhey)

(Max Touhey)

Architects transformed elements of the buildings' layouts so that they create a courtyard-like area in the middle of the main buildings.

The buildings will be interconnected with one another, including with the skybridge that crosses over Columbia Heights to connect two of the main buildings.

(Columbia Heights Associates)

One of the main landscaped entrances the developers crafted at the building will be a "grand staircase" at the edge of the property.

(Columbia Heights Associates)

A part of the development that still remains somewhat of a mystery is the spot above one building, 30 Columbia Hts., where the iconic Jehovah's Witnesses "Watchtower" sign once stood.

The big red sign was taken down in 2017 for the first time in nearly 50 years when Jehovah's Witnesses moved their headquarters to Warwick.

The developers, Columbia Heights Associates — a venture by CIM Group and LIVWRK — were approved by the city to put up a new sign in its place late last year, but haven't yet revealed what that sign will be. A rendering of the complex now only shows the time and temperature clock that once stood above the Watchtower sign.

"This is still a work in progress," a spokesperson for the development told Patch. "Once we have something definitive regarding the sign we will share that with the public."

(Columbia Heights Associates)