Mitchell – Giurgola Architects designed the renovation around celebrating the building’s original design, prioritizing environmental sustainability, and making a massive reduction in the building’s historical energy footprint.
“New high-efficiency windows with high-performance glazing and optimized sills and shades -- along with other elements of a high-performance envelope -- will improve energy performance by 26%,” according to NYU.
Originally designed by William E. Haugaard and Andrew J. Thomas, the building was hailed as one of the most important buildings of the post-World War II era and a masterpiece of the Modernist office building genre. Its efficient façade design – which allowed natural light to reach the center of each floor plate – was viewed as a template for public office buildings for decades.
Skanska USA and Atelier Ten, the sustainability consultant, chose Northern Architectural and erector Josloff Glass to provide and install more than 1,000 custom-designed retrofit windows that utilize high performance Viracon insulating glass.
Northern adapted an ultra-efficient Schuco window system and designed enhanced surrounds and sun shades to reduce glare and, at the same time, introduce natural light deep into the interior spaces.
The project will be LEED Silver compliant or better.