The renovation of KPF’s New York Headquarters balances opportunity for collaboration and socialization with individual work through a varied series of naturally lit, carefully crafted spaces accented by moments of preserved material texture.
The in-house design team worked carefully to imbue the space with KPF’s distinct professional personality, creating an airy office that takes full advantage of south-facing windows overlooking Bryant Park and the New York Public Library. A layered design approach highlights the history of the building, integrating raw accent walls and tech-forward elements to create a refined whole that reflects the process-oriented nature of KPF’s work.
Logical circulation paths form a main loop, linking the reception lounge, meeting spaces, and studios with two spacious café areas at either end of the floor and generating daily interactions between colleagues. Glass-sided conference rooms equipped with video-conferencing technology, open-plan studios, and private, acoustically insulated meeting rooms allow for a variety of work styles. Sunlit by the south-facing windows, the larger café flows directly into an expansive open-sided meeting room, creating a venue for firm-wide presentations, external events, and hybrid conferences. A central library provides access to industry publications, study materials, and tactile material samples. Occupant wellness features include continuous indoor air quality monitoring, energy-efficient LED lighting controlled by occupancy sensors, and abundant indoor greenery.