Midtown Financial Company / a + i architecture

Architects: a + i architecture
Location: New York, NY
Architecture Project Team: Dag Folger, Michael Lehner, Carrie Gibbs, Elizabeth Fennell, Phil Ward, Alan Calixto
Area: 110,000 sqm
Photographs: Magda Biernat

Audiovisual: Avtec Consulting Engineers
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates
Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing (Mep) Engineer: AMA Consulting Engineers
General Contractor: JT Magen

A prominent hedge fund over the boom years had acquired spaces in 2 different buildings in midtown. With an office divided among not only floors, but buildings, the office space lost cohesion. As things settled out, including the departure of the founder and CEO, they looked to consolidate into 1 building with 6 contiguous floors and an opportunity to redefine their identity. Much of their existing office space followed an outdated design model, perimeter offices with solid walls connected by a warren of interior corridors.

With the new space they looked to innovate. Bringing focus to amenity spaces that would promote spontaneous interaction, a design for the reception area which included an open staircase with an interconnecting feature wall and an efficient plan.

Unsure of what the market would bring over the next 5 years, the design model was one of modularity, that allowed for expansion and contraction of office space.

Office/Workroom Pods built from demountable partitions define ‘neighborhoods’ and flex from one to 10 rooms. Workrooms function as common offices allowing for more willingness for people to give up offices for open workstations. An open perimeter offers an alternative circulation route and a path for ‘walking meetings’. ‘Utility Bars’ function like floating copy rooms within each neighborhood housing office supplies, printers, scanners, and faxes. More than 90% of the office floor area has views to perimeter windows, one of the many elements contributing to the LEED GOLD certification. The very large floor plate and fairly low ceiling height further compromised by a raised floor could have created a traditional ‘pancake’ floor, but by routing mechanical through the eight foot pod ceilings, the workstations ceilings expand up to nearly ten feet offering spatial variety throughout the floor.