Moderated by Paul Makowsky, the editor-in-chief of Architect magazine, Woods Bagot’s CEO Sarah Kay and New York principal Matt Stephenson were joined by Matthew Linde, Principal/CEO of PRC (Property Resources Corporation). PRC is the developer on The Hartby, an education center to residential conversion in Brooklyn for which Woods Bagot is the architect.

Guests enjoyed conversation over drinks in the Woods Bagot designed event space which has a unique view of the midtown Manhattan skyline. Principal and Interior Design Leader Krista Ninivaggi welcomed guests and introduced Paul Makovsky and the panel while providing insight into the challenges of converting the 34th floor of the 1970 Emery Roth & Sons office building into a spacious event space and offices for the American Australian Association. When asked what the biggest challenge was in the process, Krista said it was maximizing ceiling heights appropriate for events. The design challenge required creative thinking about where to then put the functional devices that are normally hidden within the ceiling. The issue of acoustics was another challenge that Australia based fabricator Sculptform helped provide a seamless integrated solution for with slatted wood wall panels. Behind the beautiful bent wood slat installation are acoustic materials to mitigate noise.

When asked how Woods Bagot is looking at adaptive reuse from a global perspective and if there were cultural differences in the approach to it, Sarah responded:  

 “There are some big differences across the cities that we work in (around adaptive reuse), mostly because of the different drivers. In New York, there are very high vacancy rates in the office assets which is the driver here locally. In Sydney and the United Kingdom it’s actually more about sustainability.”

Sarah elaborated that in Australia there is much lower office vacancy, so the driver is “Could the building perform better financially?” Most of the adaptive reuse in Sydney is putting buildings on top of existing buildings, like Woods Bagot’s project Greenland which involved the addition of 40 stories of new building on top of an existing 20 story old office building, creating a 60-story residential building, one of the tallest in the city. In contrast, in China there is an oversupply of housing. A government mandate restricting new buildings in Shanghai and other parts of China has created another driver, which is about the character of buildings. Historic and older buildings are being reused for retail purposes and provide a contrast to the super shiny white retail new builds of the recent past.

The conversation shifted to local work in New York with Matthew Linde sharing his firm’s project with Woods Bagot, The Hartby. Built in 1870 as St. John’s College, it had become a distressed property. PRC was not the first developer on the site but was ultimately successful in taking over the project with Woods Bagot’s help in converting the structure.

“It was a tremendous learning experience and Woods Bagot was great to work with, helping us to navigate the nuances and do everything we needed to do in order to convert this beautiful historic building, which was originally built to be a school, and make something really interesting and unique” he said. “Doing adaptive reuse projects, especially in New York City, is not for the faint of heart.”

The success of the project necessitated demolition of part of the building to create enough space for the required parking, buried underneath a new wing of the building. The challenge was how to do so adjacent to a 250-year-old historic structure that would threaten the stability of the foundation. The solution, ‘permeation grouting’, was established through an open dialogue between the full consultant team. This specific construction issue was representative of how adapting buildings to new uses almost always involves solving unique challenges that may not be known before the start of construction.

When asked about the expertise that Woods Bagot brought to the project, Matt Stephenson said it was an equal balance of both local and global expertise. Understanding the local code conditions was complimented by the quality of design coming out of all the studios which WB is able to leverage to bring intelligence to each design.

He elaborated, “The nice thing about Woods Bagot is that we are like one giant studio where we can have a conversation with Shanghai today, and one with London tomorrow and we can ask questions of each studio such as what new ideas another team may see in the market or what’s working well; and then we can apply that information to each local project.” 

Key takeaways from the discussion included:

• Zoning is always changing and remaining on top of these changes and navigating the legislation is imperative.
• Collaboration across the full consultant and development team is key in real estate development
• Asking questions and not being afraid to articulate your expertise while remaining open to different approaches is critical to success
• Interest in design combined with a desire to find unique solutions every time while highlighting the unique elements of the project makes adaptive reuse possible
• The timing of legislation is critical while evaluating new projects
• Activation of the ground plane and adopting the pedestrian circulation that is prominent in Australia provides a model for how the U.S. can improve buildings

Concluding the event with questions from the audience, the panel agreed that while we do not know what the future holds, future proofing current projects to the extent possible is the best that we can do in our approach to adaptive reuse and how these buildings will work in the future.  There is a harmony between developers, designers and politicians in successful projects that emphasize the opportunities buildings present to us.  In discussing the more difficult large office conversions that many cities current struggle to convert, Matt Stephenson added, “I don’t see anyone that has solved all of the problems yet, but I believe there is a solution that can be solved through design and creative thinking within the team framework.”

Josh Wong Photography.

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