Ingredients for Success

The success of high-performance buildings is predicated on the right combination of ingredients, but since WHO [World Health Organization] announced the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2023, the recipe has been in constant flux. As building owners reconsider what these ingredients are, they are forced to ponder big questions about their properties. Is there the right mixture of uses and occupancy types that can create an active environment in an existing building? Are the building systems energy-efficient enough to meet current and future sustainability goals? What decisions — big, medium, and small — can be made to respond to market trends, hybrid work patterns, and new building technologies? These critical questions must be considered to maximize the potential of a building — both existing and new, and architects have a unique ability to formulate design solutions.

Deconstructing three project case studies below, we examine what strategies the owners and architects used to unlock the full value of these buildings in the current market.

Signature Features: 167 Green Street, Chicago

167 Green Street is a ground-up 750,000-square-foot office building located in the heart of Chicago’s Fulton Market. Once a manufacturing and warehouse district, this neighborhood is now an established destination for restaurants, retail, hotels, residences, and office buildings. Working with developers Shapack Partners and Focus, Gensler designed the 17-story office building with retail and restaurant tenants on the ground and second floors, along with an expansive, top floor amenities program.

Focused on finding the right blend of amenities, 167 Green Street made significant adjustments to the standard recipe for an office building. The first was to create a pedestrian-only walkway in the middle of the block-long building’s elevation. This feature, called The Mews, draws people in, adds additional retail and restaurant frontage, and becomes a lively space that users can enjoy before or after work hours, while also making the building an exceptionally pedestrian-friendly destination. A second unique feature is the NBA-sized basketball court situated on the building’s 17th floor; the highest elevated court in the country. This full court space provides unforgettable sweeping views of the Chicago skyline and the neighborhood below. Stars such as Stephen Curry and Justin Bieber have played basketball there, adding to the allure and buzz of the property. Both features add additional cost to the construction, but they also distinguished the property in a tight, post-pandemic real estate market.

New Spaces from Old Places: The Book Depository, Detroit

In Detroit, a new development from Ford Motor Company called Michigan Central is creating spaces for innovation and entrepreneurship. The Book Depository, a formerly vacant building, was the first building to be repositioned within the  30-acre campus. Designed in 1936 by famed architect Albert Kahn, the building once served as a post office and later a book depository for the Detroit Public Schools. It has now been transformed into a flexible workspace for innovation companies and an idea laboratory. Large, open office and collaboration spaces on the second and third floors were created with access to a new atrium and skylight. This central gathering area fosters a sense of community, and the ample natural light provides wellness to the users.

By utilizing the existing concrete structure and masonry façade, The Book Depository was able to take advantage of significant embodied carbon savings, a key building performance metric. This approach also reduced construction time and first costs. In tandem with the economic advantages, this embodied carbon story resonates with prospective tenants and community leaders looking to promote the most sustainable projects possible. It turns out that what is good for the environment can also be an impactful message to the community.

A Focusing on Light: 200 Park, San Jose

In the heart of  Silicon Valley, home to the world of technology innovation, Gensler worked with developer Jay Paul Company to design a 19-story, 1.4 million SF office building in downtown San Jose, California. Working with some of the most stringent sustainable building requirements in the country, the team also had California’s challenging environmental conditions to consider. These factors led the team to focus on design strategies related to light ­— inside and outside of the building.

Large floorplates are desirable for the technology tenants common to Silicon Valley, who often work in team-based environments and desire a concentration of employees within fewer floors. 200 Park’s footprint — a full city block – is ideal for these tenants. To increase access to natural light within this large floorplate, Gensler carved vertical “solar canyons” into the façade of the building. These canyons create opportunities for outdoor terraces, providing tenants with access to nature, views, and fresh air on multiple levels. Each façade was designed to increase or decrease the amount of glazing based on solar exposure with respect to building orientation; this optimized the energy efficiency of the building, significantly reducing cooling loads. Self-shading window projections were detailed using durable stainless steel façade panels. As an all-electric building, 200 Park is on a mission to save energy through thoughtful strategies, carefully crafted façade details, and long-lasting material choices.

In a post-pandemic real estate market, improving occupancy rates means recognizing that the recipe for success has developed beyond the standard ingredients for office buildings and their amenities. They must have community engagement, sustainability initiatives, and wellness objectives. Active environments at the base of buildings are a vital consideration for tenants whose employees want a connection to the city. Utilizing existing structures to save on embodied carbon emissions is a winning formula for reducing the environmental impact and part of a holistic strategy to produce a sustainable building. Focusing on how light can be used in building massing can avoid the negative impacts of solar radiation on facades, helping to save energy while creating healthier spaces for tenants. These ingredients are ever evolving, but with their consideration, we can transform the recipe for progress in a way that positively impacts our built environment.

Image Credits: Please see contact sheet for proper project identification.
200 Park Ave., San Jose, © Jason O’Rear, Design by Gensler
(exterior with people walking) 167 Green Street, Chicago © Dave Burk, Design by Gensler
(basketball court) 167 Green Street, Chicago © Garrett Rowland, Design by Gensler
The Book Depository, Detroit © Angie McMonigal, Design by Gensler