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
| May 22, 2014
No time for a trip to Dubai? Team BlackSheep's drone flyover gives a bird's eye view [video]
Team BlackSheep—devotees of filmmaking with drones—has posted a fun video that takes viewers high over the city for spectacular vistas of a modern architectural showcase.
| May 21, 2014
Check out Pandora's posh NYC offices [slideshow]
The new East Coast office for the Internet radio provider is housed on two interconnected floors of the classic 125 Park Avenue building, and features multiple spaces for music performances, large gatherings, and “all hands” meetings.
| May 20, 2014
Kinetic Architecture: New book explores innovations in active façades
The book, co-authored by Arup's Russell Fortmeyer, illustrates the various ways architects, consultants, and engineers approach energy and comfort by manipulating air, water, and light through the layers of passive and active building envelope systems.
| May 20, 2014
Gensler envisions 'law firm of the future' with pop-up office project
Called "The Legal Office of the Future," the pop-up demonstration project made its debut this week at the annual conference for the Association of Legal Administrators in Toronto.
| May 20, 2014
Using fire-rated glass in exterior applications
Fire-rated glazing and framing assemblies are just as beneficial on building exteriors as they are on the inside. But knowing how to select the correct fire-rated glass for exterior applications can be confusing. SPONSORED CONTENT
| May 20, 2014
World's best new skyscrapers: Renzo Piano's The Shard, China's 'doughnut hotel' voted to Emporis list
Eight other high-rise projects were named Emporis Skyscraper Award winners, including DC Tower 1 by Dominique Perrault Architecture and Tour Carpe Diem by Robert A.M. Stern.
| May 19, 2014
What can architects learn from nature’s 3.8 billion years of experience?
In a new report, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 partnered to study how lessons from the temperate broadleaf forest biome, which houses many of the world’s largest population centers, can inform the design of the built environment.
| May 13, 2014
19 industry groups team to promote resilient planning and building materials
The industry associations, with more than 700,000 members generating almost $1 trillion in GDP, have issued a joint statement on resilience, pushing design and building solutions for disaster mitigation.
| May 11, 2014
Final call for entries: 2014 Giants 300 survey
BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 survey forms are due Wednesday, May 21. Survey results will be published in our July 2014 issue. The annual Giants 300 Report ranks the top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue.
| May 1, 2014
Chinese spec 'world's fastest' elevators for supertall project
Hitachi Elevator Co. will build and install 95 elevators—including two that the manufacturer labels as the "world's fastest"—for the Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed Guangzhou CTF Finance Center.