Town Square is the heart of the 250,000sq.ft facility. A theatrical replica of a 1940s city street scene, it's based on Edward Hopper's New York paintings. The centrepiece is the Nighthawks café itself (the company's reception area), while an old-time cinema flashes its neon 'Century' sign, and serves as entrance into ETC's product demonstration and staging area. Across the way, the 'Kelly Insurance Agency' is the company's Human Resources department. Other façades - a bank, an office supply store, a travel agency - crowd around the space of Town Square, overshadowed by an Empire State Building-like skyscraper.
Besides its obvious theatricality, the building is also about Fred Foster's idea of a better corporate culture. He wanted not only to demonstrate ETC's business in lighting but also to bring its 600 employees into a closer sense of community, into a thriving centre where everyone would be a 'main character'.
