The Idea Factory

H3 partnered with the Downtown Alliance to imagine a Workplace of the Future that is the next generation incubator space. The Idea Factory is a prototype environment that promotes entrepreneurship and equality. As a clubhouse rather than a typical office space, it comprises a network of cross-disciplinary individuals who utilize each other to form a network of professional success. The goal of the space is product to market, expediting and efficiently generating ideas, matching funders, and testing ideas in a way that the density of Lower Manhattan has historically accomplished.

On the main level is the clubhouse entry. When entering, members swipe their smart phones to a spot on the wall, which will light up with their signature to denote who is active in the space. The café- an upscale espresso bar by day and a cocktail bar by night, with pre-packaged, self-serve health food offerings, is at the entry. Behind the “See and Be Seen Staircase” on the lower level are the “Think Tank” and “Booth Bots,” but also “The Plunge”- the coveted place where the deal is made, where venture capitalists meet with young aspiring entrepreneurs and shake hands to close.

While the Idea Factory prototype is scalable, this version accommodates as many as a hundred people in 10,000 square feet. User experience from entry to exit offers a variety of spaces for 24/7 ideation and production. The space brings together a community of creators, funders/investors, and the potential end-users.

CLIENT: Alliance for Downtown New York
COMPLETION: 2013
SIZE: 10,000 square feet

4W 21st Street

H3 designed this 17-story contemporary loft building in Manhattan’s historic Ladies’ Mile district. Rather than duplicate neighborhood architecture, H3’s design both complements the architecture of the surrounding historic loft buildings and gives the building an identity of its own.

The building’s masonry grid, pronounced cornice lines, and window opening proportions provide a design that responds to the large workmanlike buildings in the area. The composition is embellished by a contemporary asymmetrical bay-window pattern. The result is a playful façade that adds animation to the street. Living spaces within offer city views that are more expansive than most buildings in the area, because of the break in the streetwall across from the site.

This new residential tower contains 54 apartments and features all the amenities of a luxury condominium, including a staffed lobby and concierge, a parking garage, and exercise facilities. Retail and commercial space on the ground level further contribute to the life of the street.

CLIENT: The Brodsky Organization
COMPLETION: 2006
SIZE: 95,000 Square Feet
COST: $30 Million

Saturday Night LIve Las Vegas

H3 conducted a feasibility study and drafted plans to convert an existing theater into a permanent home for Saturday Night Live in Las Vegas, exploring a fully integrated live television production center with permanent audio and video production and new reinforcement capabilities.

The redesign of the auditorium creates an exceptional degree of intimacy and audience impact through dramatic use of multiple seating terraces, resulting in a 1200 seat television studio/theater where video, television, performers and audience are woven together. The facility is designed to host a wide range of live entertainment or HD television productions.

Saturday Night Live Las Vegas is meant to be a 24-hour venue, with a museum, studio tour, restaurant and late night bar. The project is designed to LEED Gold standards.

CLIENT: Broadway Video
COMPLETION: 2012
COST: $100 Million

Ridge Hill Village

Set on a hilltop between the New York State Thruway and Sprain Parkway, Ridge Hill is a new 80-acre, mixed-use town center containing 1.2 million square feet of retail, restaurant, and commercial space, anchored by a twelve-screen cinema complex, department stores, and a 160,000-square-foot office building. In addition to two completed apartment buildings, over a thousand new apartments will be added in future phases.

In contrast to a typical large-scale outdoor mall, Ridge Hill juxtaposes simplified forms, a variety of materials, and boldly patterned surfaces. This layering of elements is linked by sidewalks and streets to produce the intimate charm of a village without resorting to sentimentality. The development is oriented along an outdoor Main Street that connects several sections of the center. Twenty-one different patterns of colored brick, zinc metal cladding, and translucent polycarbonate skylights provide a framework that creates a vibrant, active backdrop while still allowing maximum flexibility for retailers and restaurants to exhibit their own unique brands. The result is a changing visual tableau that will evolve as time passes.

Buildings are varied in scale and fenestration, providing bridges, overlooks, second-floor promenades, and articulated facades to create an arresting series of pedestrian experiences. The Village Green sets the stage for evening entertainment, including a successful serious of summer concerts. During the day, a Tom Otterness playground entertains children and passersby. Plentiful outdoor seating, a dramatic fire-and-water fountain, and a seasonal ice rink offer a variety of amenities to engage visitors throughout the year.

CLIENT: Forest City Ratner
COMPLETION: 2012
SIZE: 1.2M square feet retail / 7,000 parking spaces
COST: $685 million

Equinox at The Stamford

Originally designed in the 1970s by Warren Platner of Windows on the World fame, Equinox is a new dining complex on the 69th through 72nd floors of the Swissôtel The Stamford—once the world’s tallest hotel—in Singapore’s famous Raffles City shopping district.

Equinox, the main restaurant, is a three-story contemporary space that enjoys a spectacular view of downtown Singapore as well as Malaysia and Indonesia beyond. It is a place, with seating for 165, where patrons go to see and be seen.

Named after the ancient Sanskrit word for ‘bowl’, JAAN is an intimate 60-seat modern French restaurant. The entire ceiling is covered with angled, triangular panels of wave-textured glass and features a stunning Murano crystal linear chandelier.

The other spaces comprise the New Asia Bar and Club 72 (180 seats), City Space (53 seats), Introbar (80 seats) and two additional reception or dining areas that serve as private dining rooms for lunch or dinner.

Asian history underlies the design, reflecting Singaporean tradition as well as its international prominence as a center of culture and commerce.

CLIENT: Raffles International
COMPLETION: 2001
SIZE: 40,000 square feet
CONSTRUCTION COST: $8 million

Court Street -The Heights

Court Street separates a nineteenth-century residential area from Brooklyn’s downtown civic and business center. Rather than make a high-profile architectural statement, our design integrates the building with its surroundings, minimizing its 210-foot height.

A large bookstore occupies the two-story base, which is covered with two colors of brick and a decorative cornice. Its detailing and height echo the architecture of neighboring brownstones.

Rising from the base is an 11-story tower containing a 12-screen cineplex. The first two stories of the tower’s east and south sides are sheathed in glass, revealing activity in the cinema lobbies. The building’s windowless facades are enlivened by horizontal bands of color and a series of setbacks.

CLIENT: Forest City Ratner
COMPLETION: 2000
SIZE: 141,000 square feet
CONSTRUCTION COST: $14.5 million

Brasserie 8½

Brasserie 8 1/2 is a contemporary restaurant in the classic ski-slope shaped Gordon Bunshaft building at 9 West 57th Street. The facility’s design combines a modern sensibility, accessible cuisine, and a relaxed atmosphere to achieve an arresting fusion of creativity and comfort.

The Brasserie occupies 13,000 square feet on two levels. In addition to the main dining room, the 230-seat restaurant features a cocktail bar and lounge, private dining areas, and an informal food bar.

Patrons enter from street level into an elegant glass cylindrical lobby, open to the restaurant below. A cast-glass ceiling, lit from within and supported by stainless-steel ribs, is sited above the central portion of the cocktail bar and lounge. A grand curved stair leads down to the bar and lounge, whose curvilinear wall showcases framed artwork and contains entrances to two private dining areas.

An illuminated stained-glass mural by the French cubist artist Fernand Léger is the main dining room’s focal point. This interior’s other features include terrazzo flooring, a stepped ceiling light fixture of cast glass and stainless steel, and walls of green silk contrasted with a wainscot of Douka wood veneer. Douka veneer also covers the south set of columns; the north set is jacketed in polished chrome.

The overall design complements the building’s classic modernism and expresses the owner’s desire for simplicity and bold color.

CLIENT: The Solow Corporation
COMPLETION: 2000
SIZE: 13,000 square feet

New 42 Offices

The New 42nd Street, Inc. commissioned the firm to design a new office space on the 9th and 10th-floors of the New 42nd Street Studios. This 10-story, glass-sheathed building, located on West 42nd Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, houses 13 dance studios and an experimental theater.

Unlike the stark design of its studios, New 42nd Street, Inc. wanted rich, colorful, and warm office interiors. The resulting design incorporates a collage of colors, textures, and patterns to create a creative, energetic environment well suited for the administration of performing arts organizations. The plan includes a reception area, small conference room, director’s office, pantry, 25-person, open-plan office on the 10th-floor of the building. and a 35-seat conference room on the 9th floor.

The sequence of spaces is defined by the five support boxes that form the center precinct and the office’s functional backbone. The goal was to locate support services as close as possible, yet with physical, visual and acoustical separation.

On the 9th-floor, a 900 square-foot conference room runs along the length of the south facade of the building, offering floor-to-ceiling views of 42nd Street. This view is contrasted with a photographic mural, pre-revitalization, that runs the length of the north wall.

CLIENT: The New 42nd Street Inc.
COMPLETION: 2001
SIZE: 6,300 square feet
COST: $1.3 million

Theatre Tower

The remarkable transformation of 42nd Street spurred the development of this new mixed use residential entertainment project adjacent to Theatre Row. The redevelopment includes a new apartment tower, carefully designed to architecturally maintain the unique scale and intimate character of this important New York City urban setting. In the base of the tower is a 499-seat playhouse, owned by the Shubert Organization, and much needed rehearsal space.

Illuminated marquees, poster show windows, glazed canopies, and extensive transparent storefront glazing activates the pedestrian experience — one of arrival at a special place. The base of the building is faced with black and white brick accented with blue terra cotta medallions in a random pattern that begins at the main entrance of the theater. The upper portions of the tower are distinguished by chamfered corners and floor-to-ceiling windows to take advantage of the views of the city at all four exposures.

The tower accommodates 260 rental apartments, 20 percent intended for low and moderate-income tenants.

CLIENT: The Brodsky Organization, The Shubert Organization, 42nd Street Development Corporation
COMPLETION: 2002
SIZE: 370,000 square feet residential; 5,000 square feet commercial; 50,000 square feet theaters
COST: $75 million