Best Design Studio: Medium
MdeAS Architects
Two Bryant Park
Architecture - Commercial - Constructed | Creator: MdeAS Architects | Commissioner: Brookfield Properties / The Swig Company
Two Bryant Park has undergone a complete transformation to become a premier office building for the workforce of the future. The building has received multiple additive renovations since its inception as an E-shaped six-story steel-framed masonry building in 1906. Acquiring nine more floors in 1926 and reaching its current 17-story height in 1984, when it transformed into the HBO building, the eponymous iteration featured a dark green curtain wall with highly reflective glass and distinctive white mullions. With a change of the major tenant coming in 2022, ownership once again faced the opportunity for re-imagination. Although razing the existing structure to build new was considered, zoning drove the decision to renovate. With the overbuilt Grace Building sharing the site, to rebuild would have meant to correct the FAR, resulting in a loss of rentable area. Therefore, the building would undergo another metamorphosis to become its most modern iteration yet. With a new high-performance curtain wall, a double-height public lobby and plaza, and a landscaped roof terrace, the repositioning of Two Bryant Park truly transforms the building with respect to energy performance, tenant experience, and urban engagement.
200 Park Avenue
Interior Design - Corporate & Commercial | Creator: MdeAS Architects | Commissioner: Irvine Company & Tishman Speyer
As a New York City icon, 200 Park Avenue is unprecedented in nature, status, and form. Since its inception as the Pan Am Building in 1963, and the sale that dubbed it the MetLife building in the 1980s, 200 Park Avenue has been privy to an assortment of generational renovations that have proven transient. Originally designed by Walter Gropius, Pietro Belluschi, and Emery Roth & Sons, it was once the largest commercial office building in the world and remains one of the largest in Manhattan today. Standing at 58 stories over 3.1 million square feet, 200 Park Avenue is a mid-century architectural icon and defining piece of the Manhattan skyline. Our design – part restoration, part reinvigoration – is a nod to the building’s past and a celebration of its future with a modern approach that upholds the integrity of the original architecture while inspiring new ideas. Over the course of the past 20 years, MdeAS has worked with owners Irvine Company and Tishman Speyer to oversee the gradual and careful restoration of the MetLife building to resemble the original 1963 design more closely. Our design includes the rejuvenation of the entirety of the building’s multi-level lobby and the creation of a new visitor reception lounge, as well as the restoration of Joseph Albers’ “Manhattan” mural and Richard Lippold’s “Flight” sculpture, which are original to the building and serve as anchors to the building’s two main lobbies.
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