Green Office Space

Your author's career-long journey of itinerant, grousy keyboard-for-hire disillusionment has given me... well, something. I am an excelloent typist, and the Wall Street Journal belatedly gave me an unflattering stipple portrait of my own. Oh, and also: I have compiled, in my mind, something of a treasury of "isn't work just the worst" quotations from various writers. There are certainly more resonant ones than Don DeLillo's characteristically terse (if uncharacteristically straightforward) assertion in Underworld that, "capitalism strips the nuances from places." But look around you, at the office in which you are likely reading this post. The dim cubicles and hissing flourescents and dense industrial carpeting. Dude's got a point, right? That plain aesthetic fact makes Sunday's New York Times article about green office spaces that much more interesting a read.

Some of those rumored green shoots in the local commercial leasing market appear to be sprouting in green buildings. Last week, Lukoil Pan Americas - the American subsidiary of the Russian oil and gas giant - signed an 11-year, 20,400-square-foot lease at the Blackstone Group's 1095 Sixth Avenue for $85 per square foot. You'll recall that the tower recently underwent a 2-year, $408.9 million renovation; designed by Moed de Armas & Shannon Architects and Gensler, the project included replacing the building's entire marble exterior with an energy-efficient glass curtain wall.

It's unfair to say that Steve is obsessed with the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I mean, he talks about it a lot and conversation always seems to find its way back around to it, even when we're just talking about baseball or, like, snack foods or whether to meet for drinks. "Hey that reminds me, your question about getting beers, of the Brooklyn Navy Yard," he says. Or... that is not true, sorry. But Steve has been all over the Brooklyn Navy Yard redevelopment at gbNYC, and with good reason -- they keep announcing new, cool, super-sustainable initiatives and projects. And soon, the Real Deal reports, Plaza Construction will actually break ground on one of the coolest of these: Beyer Blinder Belle Architects' LEED-EB Platinum hopeful restoration of the Navy Yard's Building 92.

HOK's New York City office recently executed a 40,000-square-foot design for Blue Sky Animation Studios in White Plains. Blue Sky has produced a number of works which you're likely familiar with (Ice Age, the Sopranos) and the project contemplated both the renovation of the firm's existing space, as well as expansion into an adjacent floor. The project's most prominent green design feature is its reclaimed oak paneling, which was procured from a stockyard in the Midwest and still shows various nail and worm holes. (The wood's supplier, TerraMai, also furnished the teak flooring at the Sheldrake Organization's LEED Gold-hopeful Riverhouse condominiums in Battery Park City). By specifying the worn paneling, HOK was able to provide the space with a natural outdoor character while simultaneously energizing the interiors with bright, creative colors. The design program included storyboard rooms for creative meetings in advance of animation, editing rooms, a sound studio, a cafe/community center, and a variety of open work spaces. HOK's design is also sensitive to light levels appropriate for Blue Sky's animators.