A sharp line makes two houses out of one. A sharp line makes one house out of two houses. One of those houses will be dealt with. The other will not – not really. One of the houses will become a shop. The other will not. The other will become not a store.
Two houses which together form one will look towards each other through that sharp line. The sharp line will be a wall of glass. Along the wall visitors will walk into one of the houses to the back. On the other side visitors will walk through the shop to the front. Or to the back again.
The Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed One Vanderbilt Avenue broke ground today, beginning construction on what will stand as the second tallest tower in New York City upon completion. Located adjacent to Grand Central Terminal on 42nd Street, the tower will be integrated into the its neighbor through a series of underground connections and $220 million in improvements to Grand Central’s infrastructure.
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
Developed by SL Green Realty Corp, One Vanderbilt will encompass an entire city block between Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues and will rise to a pinnacle at 1,401 feet, five feet taller than the city’s current second tallest building, 432 Park Avenue. At the building base along 42nd Street, the facade will be pulled back at an angle to reveal Grand Central’s majestic Vanderbilt cornice, which had been obscured for nearly a century.
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
The tower will contain 1.7 million square feet of office space on 58 column-free floors that feature fully glazed walls and higher than standard ceiling heights, while a 30,000 square-foot amenity floor will feature world-class dining. The building is expected to obtain the highest possible LEED certification.
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
“One Vanderbilt will not only emerge as an elegant, tapered new icon on the New York skyline, but will also serve as a leading example of a global trend of connecting train stations to tall towers, said James von Klemperer, FAIA, RIBA, President of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.
“This building will change its neighborhood for the better. It will provide a new gateway to the city made possible only through the unusually harmonious partnership between architect, developer, and the City of New York.”
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
Courtesy of SL Green Realty Corp
Included in SL Green’s $220 million public infrastructure upgrades will be a new “jewel box” transit hall in the base of One Vanderbilt, a public plaza on Vanderbilt Avenue, and improved circulation into the Grand Central Terminal complex.
Construction will be managed by Tishman Construction, and is expected to be completed in 2020.
Construction has begun on the One Vanderbilt tower in Midtown Manhattan, which will overtake 432 Park Avenue as the second tallest structure in New York City. Read more
From the architect. Perhaps the last thing you would expect to encounter on entering a financial services workspace is a luxurious ‘collaboration room’ with woollen sphere seats, more akin to a fine art installation than a meeting room. Certainly not then, a full scale baseball batting cage complete with pitching machine – a nod to the projects location in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Both are part of a sophisticated new office fit-out for the Sydney based global financial services company with which THOSE Architects have a long standing relationship, having delivered their multi award winning and widely published headquarters in Sydney, Australia.
“We deal in a virtual, data-driven world but our most valuable asset is the people behind the scenes”, says Ansarada CEO Sam Riley. “We aim to simplify, not complicate, not just in our product interface but for our clients, and the way we work as a team. So we wanted our office to be a truly wonderful space. Serious and at the same time, playful, simple and sophisticated, fresh yet experienced, authentic and contemporary. Our workplace should reflect these values, and make a positive difference to our lives, and to our clients lives. THOSE Architects fit-out does all of those things for us”.
The 880 sqm (9500 sqft) project is located in Chicago’s river north district, a stylish urban neighbourhood bordering the magnificent mile. The office occupies the entire fifth floor of a grand old warehouse richly textured with hand pressed bricks, douglas fir posts and beams, finely detailed windows and hardwood floors and ceilings.
Floor Plan
As the building was not heritage listed by the City of Chicago, nor the state of Illinois, THOSE Architects were able to take a more aggressive architectural approach to the fit-out than was possible in the heritage-sensitive Sydney project. “While remaining respectful to the grand old lady we inherited, we were able to insert some substantial architectural elements into the space to enable us to better establish functional zones throughout this project” says THOSE Architects director Ben Mitchell.
The Chicago space functions primarily as a marketing, sales and client services office which to a large extent dictated the performance brief to THOSE Architects. “It is a simple concept, but we had to ensure the space functioned acoustically and aesthetically to reflect the brand’s mantra of sophisticated simplicity while seamlessly integrating a great deal of technological infrastructure to allow the staff to perform at their best”. Ben says.
The project’s main move was to insert a bold black plywood box down the centre of the space in order to clearly define the three zones of the office. The main utility functions are carried out in this zone with provision of a kitchen, mud room, shower room, laundry and storage facilities. Also covertly located in this architectural element are a collaboration space and reading room, both of which gain considerable acoustic and visual privacy as a result of this location. Not only does the central black plywood box provide the main architectural element in the space, it is detailed with hundreds of thousands of peg holes that enable the staff to utilise the entire surface in myriad of ways. Brushed solid brass pegs sleeve perfectly into the peg holes and are used for anything from writing your colleague a message to hanging a coat.
The recreation and informal meeting rooms are located kitchen-side of the black box with a jaw dropping view over the Chicago skyline. This zone features the entry reception complete with custom detailed couches and light fixture, staff breakout area featuring custom soft furnishings, dining zone, gaming area and ultra refined meeting rooms.
Far-side of the black box, the workstations are accommodated and feature soft grey woollen carpets and ceiling panels with intricate brass and timber detailing. Secret doors abound throughout the space, concealing everything from storage to a full scale library.
Four years on from the inaugural Sydney fit-out, Ansarada has matured as a company which is reflected in the architecture of the Chicago project. THOSE Architects have retained the playful essence of the Australian philosophy, however have imbued this project with a layer of sophistication rarely seen in the corporate workplace.
Sig Nordal 