Extell Development Company is moving forward on its first office building in East Harlem in New York City. Known as Harlem Headquarters, this nine-story building, whose construction is scheduled to begin next year and be ready for fitouts by the end of 2022, will offer 441,600 sf of Class A office space. The development includes a 7,500-sf roofdeck terrace and a 40,851-sf community center.
Gensler designed Harlem Headquarters with 56,000-sf floor plates that can be divided into three zones, so layouts can be customized for tenants, says Rose Disarno, Associate and Design Lead at Gensler’s New York office. Each space will have access to its own terrace outside.
Extell is touting Harlem Headquarters’ “smart design,” which Disarno explains includes a solar array installed on the roof and MIRV-14 filters installed throughout the building, whose façade will be insulated to exceed New York’s 2016 requirements.
Leasing is expected to begin sometime this fall, with Cushman & Wakefield serving as the building’s marketing agent. Disarno believes that the Harlem Headquarters’ roofdeck will be a “critical” amenity as employees return to offices on a fuller-time basis. The building is also adjacent to several subway stops, and eventually is expected to have access to the Metro Line rail line that stretches to the city’s surrounding suburbs.
Extell did not disclose the construction cost for Harlem Headquarters, whose Building Team includes Monadnock (GC), GMS (SE), AKF (MEP and lighting), Philip Habib + Associates (CE), IBA Consultants (façade), Bright Power (renewable energy), Matthews Nielsen Landscape Architects (landscaping), Longman Lindsey (acoustics), and JM Zoning (zoning).
Extell had been exploring opportunities to develop property in East Harlem for a while, according to its chairman and founder Gary Barnett. In April 2014, the company acquired the property where Harlem Headquarters will be built, located at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, for $39 million from a partnership known as East Abyssinian Triangle.
Large floor plates within Harlem Headquarters (above) will accommodate tenant customization. Each tenant will have access to outdoor terraces (below).
ONE DOOR CLOSES, ANOTHER OPENS
Harlem Headquarters will feature 30,000 sf of ground-floor retail, and Disarno says there’s been some talk about luring a grocer as one of the tenants. A grocery would be a welcome addition to this development, which sits on a site that once encompassed a 68,000-sf Pathmark that, when it opened in 1997, was this community’s first supermarket. Hunter College’s New York Food Policy Center estimated that the Pathmark was serving 30,000 customers a week before it closed in November 2015, following the bankruptcy filing that previous July by its parent company The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known locally as A&P.
A site on New York’s Lower East Side where another Pathmark closed in 2012 is where Extell, in the spring of 2019, completed construction on One Manhattan Square, an 800-ft-tall, 80-story residential high rise with 815 condos designed by Meyer Davis, the studio behind Oscar de la Renta’s flagship retail boutiques.
An acre of private gardens and quiet spaces that overlook New York's East River and Manhattan Bridge is one of the amenities at One Manhattan Square, an 80-story condo high rise. Images: Evan Joseph
One Manhattan Square features one of the largest private outdoor gardens in New York City, more than one acre—45,000 sf—and designed by The Netherlands-based West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. The gardens are situated on a gradual incline that overlooks the East River and Manhattan Bridge. This amenity is further evidence of how landscape architecture and biophilia are becoming central to designs for various typologies.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
BIG's 'folded façade' design takes first-prize in competition for China energy company headquarters
Copenhagen-based architect BIG, in collaboration with ARUP and Transsolar, was awarded first-prize in an international competition to design Shenzhen International Energy Mansion, the regional headquarters for the Shenzhen Energy Company.
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs, Arup, AECOM top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 75 largest international design firms
A ranking of the Top 75 International Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
New air-conditioning design standard allows for increased air speed to cool building interiors
Building occupants, who may soon feel cooler from increased air movement, can thank a committee of building science specialists. The committee in charge of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55 - Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy—after months of study and discussion--has voted recently to allow increased air speed as an option for cooling building interiors. In lay terms, increased air speed is the equivalent of turning up the fan.
| Aug 11, 2010
Architecture Billings Index flat in May, according to AIA
After a slight decline in April, the Architecture Billings Index was up a tenth of a point to 42.9 in May. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. Any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings.
| Aug 11, 2010
Free-span solar energy system installed at REM Eyewear headquarters
The first cable-suspended free-span solar energy system was completed today over the REM Eyewear headquarters parking lot in Sun Valley, Calif. The patented, cable-supported photovoltaic system created by P4P Energy is expected to generate 40,877 kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity per year, enough to power five to six single family homes and to prevent 1.5 million pounds of carbon from being released into the atmosphere.
| Aug 11, 2010
Construction employment declined in 333 of 352 metro areas in June
Construction employment declined in all but 19 communities nationwide this June as compared to June-2008, according to a new analysis of metropolitan-area employment data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. The analysis shows that few places in America have been spared the widespread downturn in construction employment over the past year.
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs, Hensel Phelps among the nation's 50 largest design-build contractors
A ranking of the Top 50 Design-Build Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Arup, SOM top BD+C's ranking of the country's largest mixed-use design firms
A ranking of the Top 75 Mixed-Use Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
10% of world's skyscraper construction on hold
Emporis, the largest provider of global building data worldwide, reported that 8.7% of all skyscrapers listed as "under construction" in its database had been put on hold. Most of these projects have been halted in the second half of 2008. According to Emporis statistics, the United States had been hit the worst: at the beginning of 2008, "Met 3" in Miami was the only U.S. skyscraper listed as being "on hold". In the second half of the year, 19 projects followed suit.