Article written by Jeffrey Harrigan, AIA LEED AP, Associate
Our challenge for this project was to bring four existing 1920s era buildings, linked together across a full block near Times Square, back to life. The new rentable space totals 79,000 square feet of retail and office space. In addition to fully gutting the buildings, which existed in various states of disrepair, new elevators, exit stairs and MEP systems were installed, and a fresh presence was brought to the building facades.
Anchoring the south side of the complex, opposite the Port Authority Bus Terminal on 42nd Street, is an unusual, L-shaped, twelve-story building. The original cast iron and glass façade was encrusted in decades worth of grimy paint and stucco coatings. New windows with minimal mullion sightlines were installed, and the existing cast iron façade was restored and painted a single dark color, which, offset by the newly restored flanking limestone panels, highlights the crisp geometry and striking verticality of the slender façade.
The façade opening at grade along 42nd Street has been widened and opened up vertically with two stories of clear glass, framing out a retail space and the building lobby. Establishing a strong presence at the street was complicated by the challenging configuration of a long, somewhat narrow corridor leading deep into the building’s elevator core. Bright, foamed aluminum wall panels, along with a brightly-lit, sloped wooden slat ceiling, open up the corridor to the street, bringing light deep into the lobby, where a dramatic double-height elevator core wall is clad in a colorful purple grid of wall panels partly visible from the sidewalk, offset with brightly painted flanking walls.
At the northern edge of the complex, at the corner of 8th Avenue and 43rd Street, the existing six-story masonry building has been patched and cleaned, with the existing masonry and terra cotta details accentuated in a simple, bright, two-tone color scheme. Existing double hung windows and cluttered storefronts at grade were replaced with broad expanses of glass with minimal mullions, creating the feel of an industrial, loft-like building. On the interior, existing structurally-reinforced, cast iron columns were carefully restored, painted and left exposed as architectural elements, further enhancing the loft-like feel of the open office floors.
A second new lobby has been carved out of the base of the fourth building of the complex, which is located to the west of the corner building, facing 43rd Street. The entire ground floor masonry façade was removed and replaced with full height glass. An existing rough masonry side wall revealed during demolition was cleaned and painted over in a bold monochromatic grey, as was the balance of the existing masonry façade above. The lobby’s other bright white walls, exposed ceiling beams, polished concrete floors, crisp minimalist lighting, exposed ductwork and exposed painted structural steel, along with a sculptural, light wood-clad lobby desk, give the space the feel of a downtown art gallery, projecting a welcoming, contemporary entrance for the office spaces above.
Between the two buildings, fronting 8th Avenue, an existing utilitarian masonry façade was removed and reclad with six stories of full, floor to floor clear curtainwall, with a double height retail space created at street level. Dark mullions and spandrel glass are visually reminiscent of, and in scale with, the cast iron configuration of the neighboring twelve-story building. Dark metal trim at the façade edges flanking the glass, and a sloped, projecting metal rail and parapet assembly at the roof are contemporary design details evocative of the cast iron, ornamental trim detailing and cornices of the older adjacent buildings, creating a subtle visual continuity between old and new.