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“Farm table” at the core of the Hines offices.

Working Worlds
Working Worlds

Photo © Peter Aaron / OTTO
Architects Bring 21st-Century Vision
to Commercial and Office Projects

by Denise Liebowitz
Chapter Design Award in Interior Architecture Interests Limited Partnership, a global real estate investment
and development firm, is one such space.
Hines NYC When New York City’s historic Trinity Church hired Hines
New York, NY to redevelop some of the church’s properties in the Hudson Square
area of lower Manhattan, Hines executives decided to relocate
LSM their New York office into the same neighborhood. The area,
MEP Engineers: AKF Group once known as the Printing District, was home to numerous
printing companies that established factories near their Wall
Lighting Designers: Fisher Marantz Stone Street clients. While most of the old printers are long gone, the
Acoustical Consultants: Cerami industrial character of the neighborhood remains and served as
AV Consultants: JDAV Design the inspiration to the designers of the new Hines office.
General Contractors: Reidy Contracting Group
The office project is on the 12th floor of a 1930s-era concrete-
and-steel structure, one of the Trinity Church properties. Hines
A day at the office may never be the same again. In the post- wanted the new space to reflect the company’s contemporary
pandemic world, as workers gradually abandon their kitchen brand as well as the distinctive energy of the adjacent Soho
tables and emerge from their homes, they will demand that the neighborhood. The project was also a chance to showcase for
workspaces they return to are safe and permit social distancing other prospective tenants what could be achieved in these
yet are collaborative and welcoming. The winning office unique Trinity-owned buildings. To realize that goal, the
projects in this year’s competition—with their flexible floor company turned to Lehman Smith McLeish (LSM), a global
plans, expansive proportions, and state-of-the art materials and design practice based in Washington, DC.
mechanical systems—are the kind of environments that will Taking their cues from the architecture and the
allow workers and employers to return to the workplace with neighborhood, LSM began by stripping back the building
confidence. The recently completed New York office of Hines
to expose the concrete slab and columns; the architects also
32 WORKING WORLDS