Rethinking Your Building's Potential

HLW RETHINKING YOUR BUILDING’S POTENTIAL

By expanding traditional ideas about

renovating and retrofitting commercial prop er tie s to inclu de

rethinking building use and potential, it is possible to

I N C R E A S E V A L U E.

Changing real estate markets and economic factors over the last decade have given older buildings new life through the accommodation of uses different from the original design.

Through targeted design modifications, it is possible to expand a building’s market to attract a more diverse range of tenants.

An aging building can become competitive or a restrictive layout can be an ideal match for a different type of tenant.

HLW International’s strength as a multi-disciplinary design practice is our capacity for unconventional approaches grounded in solid experience. We have expertise with a diverse range of building types. Consider partnering with HLW to rethink your building’s potential.

H LW I n t e r n a t i o n a l is a

diverse group of

architects, interior designers, engineers, lighting specialists, strategic planners, sustainability experts, material resource specialists, and landscape designers.

Each of us contributes unique points of view and insight intended to benefit our clients. Our projects are varied in size and scope and range from feasibility studies and strategic planning assignments to alterations, large modernizations, and major new buildings. Our work may

include a few thousand to several million square feet.

HLW is headquartered in New York City and maintains additional offices in New Jersey, Los Angeles, London and Shanghai.

CREATING TENANT APPEAL

CREATING TENANT APPEAL

Successful repositioning projects are focused on design that meets the targeted needs of specific markets. Prior to investing in retrofitting an existing property, it is critical that design objectives align with a potential tenant’s needs.

Understanding your tenant’s work culture, priorities and goals leads to informed decisions about which design

and construction approach will realize the best potential value of your asset. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for amenities, finishes and floor plans. If you know your tenant, you know your building’s potential.

RETH IN KIN G A

BUILDING’S POTENTIAL

RETH I N K I N G A

BUILDING’S POTENTIAL

Comprehensive fit-outs, floor reconfigurations, system upgrades, and structural modifications to buildings can provide owners with a wide array of program options, yielding new and more profitable uses. Significant modifications to a building, such as full recladding or the removal of the roof, columns or walls, must be tactical and precise.

With an integrated design team in place, it is possible to resolve complex construction challenges. Tenant goals, such as increased density combined with flexible inside and outside amenities, can be achieved while still preserving a building’s innate beauty.

UNUSUAL right tenant MARRIAGES for your building finding the

UNUSUAL MARRIAGES

finding the

right tenant for your building A deliberate, strategic change in your tenant profile can provide financial benefits. Whether it is the pressure of location, use, or market timing that drives unexpected building repositioning solutions, the objective is to match the right tenant with the right environment.

Industrial building stock can be particularly well suited to the needs of a creative clientele. Historic structures with peculiar floor plates, less than ideal for some office tenants, are often perfect for institutional and academic clients. Quality design can capitalize on these buildings’ inherent potential for daylighting and smaller room configurations.

investing in

neighborhood investing in

community

investing in

neighborhood investing in

community There are many ways to intelligently navigate the repositioning process. The objective may be to mitigate the costs of working around existing tenants to maintain an existing cash flow. A smooth transition from one population of tenants to another—for example, from lower to higher rents or from one industry to another—is the surest way to build something truly viable and substantial.

This may require investing in unconventional ways and creating a sense of place outside your building.

Similarly, commercial space is best perceived as an opportunity to activate the ground floor and to engage with the surrounding community in an immediate and meaningful way. You have to think bigger than the building; you want to invest in the fabric and long-term livelihood of a neighborhood.

Agensys 159,600 sf

This R&D project consolidated Agensys’s previous sites into one multi-building campus consisting of new and renovated buildings housing lab, office and manufacturing functions and the repurposed historic Buttler building. The latter is an innovative way to create a thoroughfare and connection to the Bergamot Station Arts Center. A public sculpture garden lines the path.

The new research campus challenges the belief that bio-tech campuses need to be private, segregated places. In addition to the flexible laboratories and homey test kitchens, the complex includes a fitness center, public cafĂŠ, and conference center, effectively blurring the lines between public and private spaces.

YouTube Space LA 41,000 sf

Conceptualized as a “hive” of activity, the professional-grade production and post-production facility is the first of several planned facilities of this kind. According to a YouTube company representative, the impetus behind the project was to create a “friendly, nurturing environment for the most creative people in the industry.”

YouTube Space LA is a place where emerging and established “creators” can collaborate and learn from each other. In addition to providing a physical place to congregate and capitalize on synergies, this flagship production facility offers the company’s “channel partners” the human and technology resources to be ambitious in developing and realizing their ideas.

The Reserve 380,000 sf

Designed to attract creative office and entertainment-related tenants, the commercial complex embraces the industrial character of the existing buildings. HLW created large, open interior spaces with exposed structural elements, skylights, and openings in the existing shell.

Our design solutions incorporate a pedestrian mall that extends south to north across the site. The prominent southern edge of the site is also connected to the north by a series of smaller outdoor spaces and a large campus green. Leasable office space along the perimeter of the existing building can accommodate patios and entries for individual tenants. The result is an inviting promenade, which brings together tenants and visitors.

Red Bull 100,000 sf

Sometimes a building’s image is as viable of a selling point as function. HLW’s extensive renovation and transformation of an existing industrial building into Red Bull’s North American headquarters and distribution center included the insertion of a major sculptural element. The Wave is a continuous form, 40 feet wide by 420 feet long, which emerges at the entry courtyard and terminates in a theatre at the other end of the building. In addition to serving as an organizational element for the various public/private zones, it is an embodiment of a corporate identity centered in Southern California surf and skate culture.

Fordham University 40,000 sf HLW’s integrated architectural and structural team paid tribute to Fordham’s past through the preservation of Hughes Hall’s 19th century solid granite bearing walls, through an innovative roof replacement solution, and through the strategic use of transparent elements. The building now plays a powerful symbolic role. On a 21st century campus committed to innovative learning strategies and technologies, the new business school bridges the past with the future.

Our structural engineers devised a carefully sequenced construction effort to remove the steel and timber framing, while maintaining the structural integrity of the stone perimeter.

We also replaced the original oxidized copper mansard roof with glass of a similar green hue.

Natural light now permeates faculty offices.

Large openings in the massive granite walls form new entrances into the building.

Our work tells your story.

Through discovery and design, we actively explore diverse ideas and cultures. Every client is different and each project expresses unique goals and aspirations.

Together, we create places that connect, engage and inspire.

New York

New Jersey Los Angeles London Shanghai 115 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor New York, NY 10003 dcole@hlw.com (212) 353-4600