flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

New social campus for innovators, tech leaders covers a full city block

Office Buildings

New social campus for innovators, tech leaders covers a full city block

Hollwich Kushner, with Gensler as design development architects, designed the building.


By David Malone, Associate Editor | October 17, 2019
25 Kent exteior

Photos: Ty Cole

25 Kent is a new tech campus in Brooklyn designed as a social campus for innovators, startup founders, and tech leaders. The project is Williamsburg’s first speculative office space in over 50 years.

The 500,000-sf building, which occupies a full city block, has staggered floors to create a ziggurat-shaped building that juts in and out as it rises. The short ends of the facade are capped in floor-to-ceiling windows that bring natural light into the building and provide views of the Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn. The building’s exterior takes its cues from the neighborhood’s industrial character as it stacks a series of brick forms that are an homage to the materials and proportions of nearby warehouses.

 

25 Kent interior view of Manhattan

 

25 Kent’s H-shaped plan creates advantages over a generic donut office building. Instead of a typical 45-foot span between the core and the walls, 25 Kent achieves 70-foot spans with three-sided window exposure. Mechanical and circulation cores, of which each wing of the building has its own, were distributed throughout to create flexible floor plates that can be used by single tenants, two tenants, or adapted for a large quantity of multi-tenant configurations. A shared central space connects the two wings and acts as a space for tenants to socialize and collaborate informally.

 

See Also: River Rock mixed-use community breaks ground in Chattanooga

 

The interior features highly flexible floor plates designed to support a wide variety of tenants. Several types of workspaces, such as fully-equipped maker spaces, open plan office floors with shared coworking spaces, collaborative lounges, and glass-enclosed conference rooms, offer tailored environments to each tenant’s particular needs.

Related Stories

Office Buildings | Dec 14, 2016

The importance of 'Place' in the workplace

More, and more, companies are emphasizing the importance of creating a meaningful sense of place in the office environment for all of their employees, writes Gensler's Kevin Rosenstein.

High-rise Construction | Dec 13, 2016

The tallest building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district tops out

The office, designed by CetraRuddy, will be completed in 2017.

| Dec 6, 2016

Workplace pilots: Test. Learn. Build

Differentiated from mock-ups or beta sites, workplace pilots are small scale built work environments, where an organization’s employees permanently reside and work on a daily basis.

Office Buildings | Dec 6, 2016

eBay’s San Jose headquarters has a new interactive hub and welcome center named Main Street

The campus’s new ‘front door’ is designed to immerse visitors and employees into the company’s global commerce.

Office Buildings | Nov 15, 2016

Under Armour unveils phase one of 50-acre Baltimore headquarters

The campus will be located in Baltimore’s $5.5 billion Port Covington redevelopment project.

Office Buildings | Nov 14, 2016

Media’s adaptive shift: Converged environments

The converged environment is a live-streaming workplace, a zone where news and content flow continuously and speed to market is everything.

High-rise Construction | Nov 3, 2016

Two identical Kohn Pederson Fox office towers may be headed to Wacker Drive

Murphy Development Group is looking for tenants for the $800 million project.

Office Buildings | Oct 26, 2016

The power of office amenities in the workplace

With a continued focus on providing more with less, companies across all industries are continually driving their workers to increase efficiency and productivity—to get product and services to market faster and cheaper, writes LPA's Karen Thomas.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Adaptive Reuse

Detroit’s Michigan Central Station, centerpiece of innovation hub, opens

The recently opened Michigan Central Station in Detroit is the centerpiece of a 30-acre technology and cultural hub that will include development of urban transportation solutions. The six-year adaptive reuse project of the 640,000 sf historic station, created by the same architect as New York’s Grand Central Station, is the latest sign of a reinvigorating Detroit.




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021