http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/re...?ref=yourmoney
An Open, Sunlit Space at 7 World Trade Center
At far left, James G. Phillips, left, and Luc Massaux of TPG Architecture in the offices of Mansueto Ventures, which the two designed.
The open workspace aims to let in as much natural light as possible.
A small meeting area.
A cafeteria, with a conference room in the background.
By CLAIRE WILSON
May 13, 2007
WHEN Mansueto Ventures bought the magazines Inc. and Fast Company from the German publisher Gruner & Jahr two years ago, it immediately began polishing the two titles. The paper quality was improved, staff changes were made and the editorial content was sharpened, according to Mansueto, the new owner. The company also wanted its new offices in New York to project the same retooled image, by emphasizing that the magazines were no longer part of a huge global stable of mainstream publications on subjects ranging from politics to parenting to decorating.
“We wanted our new space to reflect our new ownership,” said John Koten, the chief executive of Mansueto Ventures. “We wanted something that could communicate that we are a more nimble company and no longer part of a big bureaucracy.” Mansueto Ventures is owned by Joe Mansueto, who also founded Morningstar Inc., the investment research firm. Mr. Mansueto paid $32.5 million for the two magazines.
On April 2, the publishing company and its staff of 190 moved into 40,000 square feet on the 29th floor of 7 World Trade Center. Mansueto had previously been in 39,000 square feet on a floor it had shared with the Meredith Corporation, a publisher of books and magazines like More and Family Circle, at 375 Lexington Avenue at 42nd Street.
Besides the developer, Silverstein Properties, and the offices of its team of architects from various firms that will be designing the buildings at Nos. 2, 3 and 4 World Trade Center, Mansueto is only the third tenant to move into 7 World Trade Center, which is part of the first phase of construction to be completed around the former site of the twin towers.
The company’s general manager, Kristine Kern, looked at 50 spaces around Manhattan before settling on the downtown site. The new space, according to Mr. Koten, fits in perfectly with the message the company sends its 1.44 million subscribers, the majority of them high-earning male managers and entrepreneurs.
“We are taking the advice we give to our readers, to be ahead of the trend, be pioneering and go where other people are afraid to go,” he said.
James G. Phillips, principal in the New York-based firm TPG Architecture, and Luc Massaux, TPG’s studio design director, designed the space, whose parallelogram shape is dictated by the unusual street pattern in the financial district. The center core construction of the tower, at the foot of Greenwich Street between Barclay and Vesey Streets, is column-free, making the raw floor a blank canvas for architect and tenant. Obtuse and acute angles set it apart from office towers with square or rectangular footprints, Mr. Phillips said.
“It makes the floor plan more dynamic,” he said.
Sweeping 360-degree vistas of New York dominate the space, whose exterior walls are all glass. “The mandate was to do nothing to interfere” with the view, Mr. Phillips said. “Just bring it inside.” Partitions were kept to a minimum to preserve the views and natural light. Seven conference rooms and 35 individual offices around the periphery have glass walls, with sliding glass doors framed with galvanized aluminum. Workstations for interns, which are away from the windows and around the inner core of the building, are equipped with stools to permit the most light and good views.
Mr. Koten wanted to use as few materials as possible and wanted to conserve resources when configuring the new headquarters. Seven World Trade Center is the first New York City office tower to receive a gold rating for environmental sustainability from the United States Green Building Council.
In the Mansueto offices, there is no dry wall, for example, and ceiling tiles are used only in the private offices and conference rooms. Ceilings are raw in the rest of the space and finished only with textured fireproofing materials, while most of the floor is bare concrete coated with an epoxy finish.
There are four communal copying and printing rooms on the floor, eliminating about 40 individual printers that staff members had previously used. That move cut down significantly on the use of ink and toner, according to Ms. Kern, the general manager.
Fewer partitions also create a sense of openness that was critical to the strategy behind the design. According to Mr. Phillips, the layout was meant to engender interaction among staff members. The space is divided into sections for three divisions: one for each of the two magazines and the third for corporate offices. Pale maple work cubicles designed by the Italian company Unifor at the center of each section were given less space in favor of communal areas. Those include conference rooms in a range of sizes — from the principal one that seats 28 to one with a high, colorful Parsons-style table and four aluminum stools.
Further economizing on individual space, employees’ personal gear will be relegated to the 200 high-school-style lockers soon to be installed inside space in the unfinished building core.
“Tremendous emphasis was placed on the sharing of knowledge, rather than on personal territory,” said Mr. Phillips, whose current projects include the New York headquarters for the music publisher EMI and the retail component of the Plaza Hotel. The company also designed the studio for NBC’s “Today” show.
The offices will also feature a high-tech innovation in publishing. Computer monitors show images of page layouts that change as the editors revise them. There are 40 screens on each wall. A third display of eight monitors is to be used as needed for different Web sites, including those of Fast Company and Inc.
As in most modern office renovations, the entire floor has WiFi access so staff members with laptops can move to impromptu meetings in casual seating areas scattered around the offices or in the conference rooms.
The cafeteria is the most popular gathering spot, near the elevators. Also serving as a reception area, it is marked off by a large carpeted circle with modern tables and chairs and a serpentine bench. A cool white marble bar, a wall paneled in dark wood and a wall of banquettes upholstered in deep olive fabric create an unusual counterpoint to the corner conference room, which hangs like a sleek glass box over ground zero and the first few beams of the Freedom Tower.
The space is ultramodern but somewhat retro, Mr. Koten said. It is the feel of the newsrooms in which he started his career and which has been lost since publishing went desktop, the “sense that something was being manufactured here, and that people were creating something,” he said.