Office

Johnson Controls Asia-Pacific Headquarters, Shanghai, China
Case Study
Office

Monsoon Proof

Gensler recently completed the Johnson Controls Asia-Pacific Headquarters in Shanghai, China. Building in a mega-city that is vulnerable to rising sea levels, intense tropical cyclones with high-wind speeds and an extremely wet Asian monsoon season required the design to incorporate passive, redundant and low-maintenance building envelope solutions. Careful attention was paid to the detailing of façade border conditions where different systems meet. Façade laboratory and on-site testing was performed as a means of understanding the building enclosure’s ability to withstand extreme weather events.The building has two emergency generators, but in the event of a power failure the building

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Eastlake Studio, Chicago
Case Study
Lighting & Controls

Blending Historic with Modern

Studio unites historic architecture and modern design for collaborative office space. Eastlake Studio was faced with adversity when plans to convert the building that had been their long-time residence to a hotel and condos became a reality. The studio had been residing in Chicago’s Tribune Tower, for approximately three decades. The change of vocation of the tower from commercial to mixed-use residential provided the architecture firm an opportunity to address the challenges of the former office while opting to move to another historic building. The limitations of the original office were motivators for designing the new space. According to Kevin Kamien, principal at Eastlake Studio,

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Cove Lounge Chair
Advances
Contract Furnishings

Me Time

The Cove lounge chair, manufactured by Poltrona Frau, and designed by Foster + Partners, is suitable for public lounges, even reception areas, and has been designed to function as part of a cloud-like cluster of chairs. The ribs of cushion at the back of the chair extend in places to form ridges, which can be used as armrests.“The design [of Cove] explores the spatiality of personal space, expanding the notion of a simple chair in terms of function and materiality. Its compact form carves out a generous volume that provides a secluded space to eat, work or relax.”—Mike Holland, Head of Industrial Design, Foster + Partners

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Overlay designed by Birsel+Seck for Herman Miller
Advances
Operable Partitions

Movable Walls

Overlay by Birsel+Seck for Herman Miller are movable walls that can be used to create freestanding rooms, give shape to open or divide areas. It can create an enclosed meeting space—complete with a door. Unveiled at NeoCon in 2018, Overlay's movable walls can be used to create free-standing rooms, give shape to open spaces or simply divide areas. A three-sided workspace can create a designated niche, or four Overlay walls can create an enclosed meeting space—complete with a door. Overlay frees up time and funds in an office renovation budget: two people can move it in two hours; and at $350 a linear sq. ft., it is half the cost of demountable walls.   

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Converse Global Headquarters, Lovejoy Wharf, Boston
Case Study
Glass & Curtainwall

The Lovejoy Wharf

For years the privately-owned Lovejoy Wharf was a missing link in the HarborWalk that extends 46 miles around Boston’s waterfront. Revived in 2015, Lovejoy Wharf is now home to a new pedestrian walkway and a reinvented 200,000-sq.-ft., circa 1904 office building—the new global headquarters for iconic footwear company Converse. A unique mix of retail, entertainment and commercial office space, Lovejoy Wharf hosts 600 corporate employees; Converse’s non-profit sound studio, RubberTracks, that helps non-mainstream artists record an album; a yoga studio; fitness center; café/commons and materials library. Embracing multiple old and new exposed hard surfaces, building materials

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Case Study
Solar & Renewable Power

Unisphere

United Therapeutics’ (Unither) Unisphere is the largest net zero commercial building in the U.S. A biotechnology company focused on the development of products to address the needs of patients with chronic and life-threatening conditions, Unither, in planning the 210,000-sq.-ft. addition to its six-building campus in Silver Spring, approached the project, in the same manner as the development of one of its products. They identified a primary objective: build a facility to keep up the design and development flow of the company’s new products; second, create a building that would exemplify a new environmental theory to the structures of this genre; and third, create a contempo

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Case Study
Glass & Curtainwall

Façade Revamps Old San Jose Office Building

Designers customized a glass façade for San Jose’s 111 Market Square to attract new tenants. Modulus Architects customized a second-skin glass façade for 111 Market Square; the back-lit decorative glass cladding is a key element in the upgrade of two 1960’s Class B office towers into Class A commercial real estate assets.

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Advances
Glass Walls/Partitions

Around the Globe

Tek Vue from Teknion was designed in response to customers’ increased emphasis on aesthetics, simplicity and value. The system focuses on single-center glazing and thin-profile frames, while providing effortless integration with conventional building construction and existing Teknion wall programs. Tek Vue wall and door programs are built on the concept of a universal platform, which re-envisions a system that can be specified, planned and installed within constantly evolving architecture andinteriors. 

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Advances
Contract Furnishings

String Pattern

Recently, 3form launched a new addition to the Full Circle collection with a team of textile artisans in Magelang, Indonesia. Inspired by long-lasting global relationships created by Full Circle, string was used throughout the new patterns to represent the connections and intersections the program fosters between people and communities. What resulted is four new stunning patterns that can be used in a variety of 3form products. 

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433 Broadway, New York City
Case Study
Exterior Panels/Cladding

Articulation Curbs NYC "Dirt Factor"

433 Broadway walks a fine line between historic form and modern function, visually blending in to Manhattan’s historic SOHO district. Owned by Cubico, it is the first building entirely devoted to shared workspace constructed from the ground up. With this came a host of design challenges to allow varied companies to coexist—and thrive—within the same workspace. “Because it is being used by any number of different people, we wanted it to be as general and anonymous as possible,” says Nelson Vega, Associate Principal, AIA, RKTB Architects. RKTB also set out to avoid enclosed spaces that would block daylight from getting deep into each floor, with a lot of interior

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