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’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
| Jan 9, 2015
Technology and media tenants, not financial companies, fill up One World Trade Center
The financial sector has almost no presence in the new tower, with creative and media companies, such as magazine publisher Conde Nast, dominating the vast majority of leased space.
| Jan 8, 2015
The future of alternative work spaces: open-access markets, co-working, and in-between spaces
During the past five years, people have begun to actively seek out third places not just to get a day’s work done, but to develop businesses of a new kind and establish themselves as part of a real-time conversation of diverse entrepreneurs, writes Gensler's Shawn Gehle.
Smart Buildings | Jan 7, 2015
Best practices for urban infill development: Embrace the region's character, master the pedestrian experience
If an urban building isn’t grounded in the local region’s character, it will end up feeling generic and out-of-place. To do urban infill the right way, it’s essential to slow down and pay proper attention to the context of an urban environment, writes GS&P's Joe Bucher.
| Jan 6, 2015
Construction permits exceeded $2 billion in Minneapolis in 2014
Two major projects—a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings NFL team and the city’s Downtown East redevelopment—accounted for about half of the total worth of the permits issued.
| Jan 2, 2015
Construction put in place enjoyed healthy gains in 2014
Construction consultant FMI foresees—with some caveats—continuing growth in the office, lodging, and manufacturing sectors. But funding uncertainties raise red flags in education and healthcare.
| Dec 28, 2014
Robots, drones, and printed buildings: The promise of automated construction
Building Teams across the globe are employing advanced robotics to simplify what is inherently a complex, messy process—construction.
| Dec 28, 2014
AIA course: Enhancing interior comfort while improving overall building efficacy
Providing more comfortable conditions to building occupants has become a top priority in today’s interior designs. This course is worth 1.0 AIA LU/HSW.
| Dec 28, 2014
10 key design interventions for a healthier, happier, and more productive workplace
Numerous studies and mountains of evidence confirm what common sense has long suggested: healthy, happier workers are more productive, more likely to collaborate with colleagues, and more likely to innovate in ways that benefit the bottom line, writes Gensler's Kirsten Ritchie.
| Dec 28, 2014
Workplace design trends: Make way for the Millennials
Driven by changing work styles, mobile technology, and the growing presence of Millennials, today’s workplaces are changing, mostly for the better. We examine the top office design trends.
| Dec 27, 2014
7 ways to enhance workplace mobility
The open work environment has allowed owners to house more employees in smaller spaces, minimizing the required real estate and capital costs. But, what about all of their wireless devices?