by: Ian Volner
Event: Architecture: Designs for Living Public Lecture Series: New Directions in Design of the Workplace
Location: Center for Architecture, 09.08.08
Speakers: Martha Hirst — Commissioner, NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS); Dina Frank, AIA, IIDA — President, Mancini-Duffy; Rick Focke — Senior Principal, HOK; Nathan Hoyt, FAIA — Principal, Davis Brody Bond Aedes; Guy Geier, FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP — Senior Partner, FXFOWLE Architects
Moderator: Rocco Giannetti, AIA, LEED AP — Chair, AIANY Interiors Committee
Organizer: AIANY Interiors Committee
Sponsors: Champion: Studio Daniel Libeskind; Supporters: Gensler; Humanscale; James McCullar & Associates; Friends: Costas Kondylis & Partners; Forest City Ratner Companies; Frank Williams & Associates; Hugo S. Subotovsky A.I.A. Architects; Mancini Duffy; Magnusson Architecture and Planning; Rawlings Architects; RicciGreene Associates; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Syska Hennessy Group; Trespa North America; Universal Contracting Group
National Audubon Society Home Office, NYC.
Photo by David Sundberg/Esto, courtesy FXFOWLE Architects
The NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) received a mayoral mandate to reduce city government’s carbon footprint by 30% over the next 20 years in accordance with PlaNYC. DCAS Commissioner Martha Hirst explained that “doing more with less” is no easy task as the Office of Energy Conservation handles the accounts for about 4,000 municipal buildings. Some efforts — more efficient lighting at the Police Academy, and quick roll-up doors for the Department of Sanitation — have presented technical challenges.
Interior designers are doing their part to live up to PlaNYC’s sustainability goals as well. Presenting an office renovation at the Empire State Building for the NGO Human Rights in China, Nathan Hoyt, FAIA, principal of Davis Brody Bond Aedes, spoke of the need to “elasticate” modest space to accommodate a growing staff. Installing floor track movable furniture was one of the decisions made, as well as creating spaces that could serve double, or even triple, uses. At the National Audubon Society offices, FXFOWLE Architects incorporated found furniture and streamlined heating and cooling into the interior design.
“We don’t try to convert the client,” said Mancini-Duffy President Dina Frank, AIA, IIDA; instead, she recommended a “soft sell,” letting the health and economic advantages of environmentally sensitive, LEED-oriented design speak for themselves. Images of Mancini-Duffy’s new interior for AOL’s New York headquarters addressed this: sensor-activated lighting, bamboo paneling, and an open floor plan all made for a seductive, yet practical, interior design solution.
Ian Volner is a writer and critic living in Manhattan.