450 West 14th Street: LEED for Core and Shell Above the High Line from Morris Adjmi

Developed by Charles Blaichman and designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, 450 West 14th Street will sit above an existing three-story masonry industrial building along 9th Avenue, straddle the High Line, and also seek an unspecified level of certification under USGBC’s LEED for Core and Shell (“LEED-CS”) rating system. Blaichman and Morris Adjmi are no strangers to high-profile New York City projects; Blaichman’s efforts include his Richard Meier-designed condos on the far west edge of Greenwich Village, while Morris Adjmi saw its new arena for the New Jersey Devils- the Prudential Center- open up to much critical acclaim last fall out in Newark.

The Slatin Report describes the project as a boutique office building that will offer 8,000 square feet of retail across two different ground-floor spaces. Slatin also reports that some of the space is already leased; Japanese fashion company Theory has apparently signed up for 20,000 square feet of office space (about a quarter of the building’s total) while one of its designers, Helmut Lang, will occupy one of the ground-floor retail spaces. Asking office rents in the area are approximately $80 per square foot, while retail rents check in at around $500 per square foot. More specific details about green features and a construction timeline don’t appear to be presently available.

We’ve discussed the system previously, but LEED-CS covers core and shell construction, which generally encompasses base building elements (i.e., structure, envelope, and MEP systems). On many commercial projects, separate contractors will execute core and shell and the interior fit out of the tenant-occupied floors, and the LEED for Commercial Interiors (“LEED-CI”) rating system is meant to complement LEED-CS in this context. LEED-CS Precertification is unique to the core and shell rating system; it allows registered projects to receive formal recognition from USGBC early during the design stage in order to assist commercial owners in marketing their buildings to potential tenants. Only ten projects here in New York City have registered with USGBC under the LEED-CS system, so we’ll be keeping an eye on 450 West 14th Street as it negotiates the certification process and follow up with more details once the project begins to move forward.

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