Restoration, Reinvention, Transformation
Repositioning
New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Abu Dhabi
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Hudson Commons
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390 Madison
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One Madison
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Centra Metropark
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175 Park Avenue
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World Bank Headquarters
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Peterssen Automotive Museum
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Unilever Headquarters
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The Bermondsey Project
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Window La Defense
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Tour First
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World Trade Center
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The Landmark
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New York, NY, USA
Hudson Commons
441 Ninth Avenue
Client: Cove Property Group Program: Office Size: 65,032 m2 / 700,000 ft2
Situated at the gateway to the Hudson Yards submarket, this repositioned, LEED Platinum office tower maintains the expression of the site and neighborhood while attracting creative tenants to its new Class-A workspace.
KPF renovated the eight-story warehouse and designed a new, 17-story building to rise from the podium. On the exterior, the podium’s lowered brick spandrels and new ribbon windows effuse greater natural light into the space. Inside, a preexisting grid of fluted, concrete columns uphold their form and function. In the tower, cellular beams and corrugated ceiling textures evoke the industrial quality of the podium while a pattern of concave extrusions on the façade add depth to the glass grid, all the while harking back to its surroundings through its duotone, white-grey detailing. The building’s 25 rentable stories cater to the needs of diverse tenants, with nearly every level sporting private terraces or balconies, and the top floor combining its double-height space with a landscaped terrace. The tower’s side-core configuration preserves city and river views, while an exposed stairway encourages daily use and communication between floors and contribute to the interior’s bright, open expanse. By reusing an existing structure, the design preserves embodied carbon and reduces the project’s potential environmental impact. Over 85% of the existing building’s envelope and structural elements were reused, while the team achieved an 80% diversion rate of construction and demolition debris. Regional and recycled content, as well as FSC-certified wood and low-emitting materials, also minimize the project’s carbon impact. Expanded and floor-toceiling windows enhance daylight coverage of each floor, such that 90% of regularly occupied spaces offer views of the outdoors.
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Multiple terraces, skylights, and green spaces create a series of lively, wellness-oriented working, gathering, and collaboration spaces.
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New York, NY, USA
390 Madison
Client: L&L Holding Company Program: Office, Retail Size: 79,900 m2 / 859,100 ft2
390 Madison is a dramatic modernization of an outmoded office building in the heart of New York City’s Midtown corridor.
The surgical re-massing and configuration of this overbuilt property provides modern workspace without sacrificing valuable area in its prominent Midtown location. The original 1950s building predated current city zoning, which meant that the client would have lost significant GFA had a new structure entirely replaced the existing. Certain locations in the building—including areas compromised by low floor-to-ceiling heights or an unfavorable column grid— were identified as suitable for relocation. Based on the initial massing concept, the final design carves out sections of existing floor slabs and redistributes the excised floor area to form eight new stories atop the existing structure. The move provides valuable new height, views, and a more balanced distribution of floor plate area. 390 Madison's redesign also prioritizes amenity and collaboration spaces to satisfy the expectations of today's tenants. New volumes of space include several double-height spaces and a triple-height amenity space on the ninth floor. The unique L-shaped space, on the building’s southeast corner, boasts a column-free perimeter and a ceiling height of more than 25 feet. An exterior terrace runs along the building’s three street frontages and extends the amenity space outside the building.
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Transfering usable area from the lower to upper floors resulted in several multiheight, amenity-rich spaces.
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At the ground level, twostory retail spaces provide new homes for businesses, while a column-free corner at Madison Avenue and 46th Street extends the sidewalk and activates the streetscape.
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New York, NY, USA
One Madison Avenue
Client: SL Green Program: Office Size: 121,000 m2 / 1,300,000 ft2
With a design complementing its landmarked neighbor, the transformation of One Madison Avenue will bring flexible, Class-A office space to Manhattan’s Flatiron District.
The design proposes the adaptive reuse of an existing, midcentury masonry podium and the addition of an elegant new tower above. Panoramic terraces and specialty office spaces will afford exceptional views of Madison Square Park and the adjacent 5 Madison Clock Tower. A new glazed ‘slot’ along Madison Avenue visually connects the building to the park, transitioning to elevated green spaces that extend the park vertically, stitching together architectural elements both old and new and terminating at landscaped terraces on the building’s top floors. At the building’s podium, the existing limestone façade will be retained and repaired, while aluminum windows and spandrels will be replaced with a high-performance structurally-glazed curtainwall. Inside, the gut-renovation will transform an outmoded layout into large, open-floor plates to accommodate flexible workspace, with maximized ceiling heights and a modern, Class-A vertical transportation system and service core. The new tower addition, with a glass, curtainwall façade, optimized floor-to-floor heights and virtually column-free floorplates, steps away from the landmarked clock tower to establish a dialogue between past and present. At the top of the building, the penthouse will feature a double-height space that sits directly below a rooftop terrace with citywide views. The redesign is forecasted to result in a significant energy reduction of over 60% against the AIA 2030 Commitment baseline. Additionally, the project has been designed to comply today with the 2030 building emission targets determined by NYC’s Local Law 97, one of the first legislations of its kind in the world.
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Multi-story atria and expansive terraces create large common areas accented by more intimate gathering spaces.
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Iselin, NJ, USA
Centra Metropark
Client: The Hampshire Companies Program: Office Size: 12,300 m2 / 110,000 ft2
Forgoing the typical New Jersey office park model, this national award-winning, LEED Platinum project offers a new paradigm for the suburban office experience that blends urbanism with the living landscape.
The first phase of a campus master plan, the project embodies a user-friendly approach by avoiding the common practice of siting blocks of buildings in vast seas of parking devoid of landscape. Woven together, the landscape and building form encourage social interaction and provide a healthier and more sustainable environment. The renovation adds value by expanding the total area of leasable office space while utilizing the existing structure and recycling its valuable components. An extension of the top floor adds 10,000 square feet, while the addition of vision glass and light wells activates the previously unoccupied basement which now comprises day-lit office space and tenant amenities. The project’s unique structure includes an asymmetrical treecolumn and truss to support an extended fourth floor, providing a signature element for the project and a grand canopy over the entry plaza. A rectangular hole is carved in the center of the suspended fourth floor, allowing the sun to shower the entry plaza with light. Surrounding pyramidal landscape forms further distinguish the site and help to create a dynamic visual presence for the campus.
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The transformation was broken down into four elements: 1) the removal of the previous, outdated exterior, 2) the creation of sunken garden lightwells to bring light to the basement level, 3) the addition of a highperformance curtain wall, and 4) the extension of the fourth floor.
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Madison, NJ, USA
175 Park Avenue
Client: The Hampshire Companies Program: Headquarters Size: 26,500 m2 / 285,000 ft2
KPF transformed an existing Verizon call center into a headquarters for a young, cutting-edge company by pulling nature directly into the office environment. The result is a state-of-theart workspace that is intimately connected to its surroundings.
KPF’s strategy cut the central third out of the existing building to create a series of open-air courtyards. The central courtyard divides the building into two parallel office bars, or wings, whose ends face the parking area. A central connector, the lobby space, is conceived of as an architectural promenade leading to the third floor by way of an ornamental stair sequence. In the design of the outdoor spaces, KPF collaborated with renowned landscape architects Nelson Byrd Woltz. The courtyard moves outward in layers into the parking area, which is reenvisioned as a part of the landscape. Landscape swales and plantings help to re-establish natural aquifers. The signature installation of land art in the courtyard is a reference to the geological formations of the site and the broader context of bucolic Madison, New Jersey.
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KPF's design reinvents the original massing into two office bars that frame a series of landscaped spaces.
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Washington D.C., USA
The World Bank Headquarters
Client: The World Bank Program: Headquarters Size: 123,100 m2 / 1,324,400 ft2
KPF’s design for the World Bank Headquarters befits the aspirations of a significant international organization. Winner of three AIA awards, the scheme has been called “a model of ingenuity, good design, and precision engineering.”
The scheme occupies a site on Pennsylvania Avenue, and creates a unified entity by incorporating existing buildings by Skidmore Owings & Merrill and Vincent King. The building consists of a 13-story block surrounding a large covered courtyard. Bathed in natural light, the 150-foot-wide courtyard represents the bank as a community, connecting and integrating the separate buildings and their diverse functions within one institution. The central court contains linear watercourses, monumental flights of steps, and pyramidal glazed pieces. The design takes inspiration from its context, enhancing the scale of Vincent King’s modern building while breaking from Washington’s classical vocabulary of architecture and colonial references. The horizontally striated glass façade counters the vertical gestures that derive from and connect to the existing structures. The material palette of glass, pre-cast concrete, and white-painted aluminium establishes a dialogue between weight and lightness, creating depth and variety of expression. The result is a strong urban presence and a symbol of the World Bank’s commitment to transparency and accessibility.
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Los Angeles, CA, USA
Petersen Automotive Museum
Client: Petersen Automotive Museum Program: Civic + Cultural Size: 12,541 m2 / 135,000 ft2
The transformed Petersen Automotive Museum establishes a renewed image for the institution. Capturing the art, experience, culture, and heritage of the automobile, the museum reemerges as a worthy neighbor of the buildings along Museum Row on Los Angeles’ famed Miracle Mile.
Inspired by the form of a car, KPF’s design creates a new “body” around the existing “chassis” of the museum. A corrugated aluminum rain screen outboard wraps the building, while ribbons of angel hair stainless steel and red painted aluminum flow around the building. The reveals point to the existing entry vestibule and other apertures, while the is converted into a party space that can be rented out. Sitting atop the existing structural system like the body of a car mounted to its frame, the steel ribbons evoke a sense of speed and movement and are brushed to avoid creation of glare. The design offers a contemporary interpretation of the mid-century, spaceage “Googie” architectural style that characterizes Los Angeles. The result is one of the most significant and unforgettable structures in the city.
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The building's exterior wrap comprises multiple layers: red aluminum rainscreen, stainless steel ribbon, outrigger, and a network of supporting steel trees.
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Left: The wrapping effect continues up over the roofline to frame a private event space. Above: The renovated interiors, done in collaboration with Scenic Route, offer a clean and rational backdrop for the museum's stunning car collection.
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London, UK
Unilever London Headquarters
Client: Unilever PLC Program: Headquarters Size: 36,500 m2 / 392,400 ft2
In transforming this historic structure, KPF put the working practices of Unilever employees at the heart of the design process.
When Unilever made 100 Victoria Embankment its London headquarters in the 1930s, it was hailed as the “wonder building of modern commerce.� The new headquarters is a highly flexible modern workplace, able to accommodate every kind of working behavior in a commercially efficient and environmentally sustainable way. KPF’s design preserved and restored the exterior of the historic Grade II-listed structure while completely renovating, reconfiguring, and modernizing the interior. A landmark for sustainability, the design was awarded a BREEAM Excellent score for its energy efficiency and its reuse and conservation of materials. Offices are provided in the restored and extended Crescent and Watergate wings. A new central atrium brings natural air and light into the center of the building and is navigated via a dramatic sequence of suspended bridges and platforms that create informal meeting spaces. The central plant is relocated to make way for a roof garden that offers alternative work and recreation spaces.
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In addition to preserving the building's Grade II-listed exterior, the design also reopened the building's original main entrance on the Embankment, with adjustments for accessibility and improvements to infrastructure, parking, and vehicular drop-off.
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The design reconfigures the building’s floor plates to introduce a light and colorful atrium, which opens up the building, improves circulation, and encourages interaction and exchange between staff.
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Paris, France
Window La Défense
Client: Groupama Program: Office Size: 40,900 m2 / 430,500 ft2
Adjacent to the Grande Arche and close to France’s largest commercial center, Les Quatre Temps, KPF’s design for Window retains the previous building’s essence while enhancing its relationship to its urban context.
Window La Défense is a dramatic transformation of an existing office building prominently located in Paris’s major business district, La Défense. The client chose to preserve the 1982 structure due to its prior success and good structural condition. KPF’s solution recycles the existing base and introduces a cladding system that creates a lively presence along the Parvis, the esplanade of La Défense. The transformation extends the two central atria in elevation, bringing more natural light to the interiors and increasing horizontal and vertical circulation. Added amenities include restaurants, workspaces, meeting rooms, and a 250-seat capacity auditorium, encouraging connectivity for both tenants and visitors. Taller ceiling heights improve workspace quality and flexible floorplates improve adaptability for future tenants. Seizing the dramatic nature of its location, Window enters into theatrical dialogue with its surroundings by imagining the esplanade as a theater audience, its iconic neighbor, the Grande Arche, as a proscenium, and Window, with its rippled glass façade, as a stage curtain. The new façade alternates three sections of elegant cladding with two sections of buckling, vertical creases of varying depths. Window La Défense maintains its horizontal character and continues to stand out from its vertical surroundings, earning the building its nickname: the “tour allongée” or “laid down tower.”
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Window generates a theatrical dialogue with the Grande Arche, its famous neighbor, acting as the stage curtain to the arch's proscenium.
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Paris, France
Tour First
Client: ALTAREA-COGEDIM, AXA Real Estate, Beacon Capital Partners Program: Headquarters Size: 87,000 m2 / 935,000 ft2
The winning entry in an international design competition for one of France's first skyscrapers, KPF’s design for Tour First creates a welcoming symbol to La Défense and a strong new architectural image for the Paris skyline.
Located on a prominent site near the Neuilly Bridge, the completely refurbished Tour First retains the integrity of the original 1970s tower while improving its connection to the urban context. KPF’s design solution increases the rentable area by extending floor slabs to create dimensions that meet current market needs. Opaque gable walls were replaced to bring natural daylight into office spaces and enhance views out to the city. Reorganized entry levels reinvigorate the entrance hall and strengthen connection between social spaces. By creating sky gardens, informal meeting and breakout spaces are introduced along the building’s exterior. Three newly constructed volumes help integrate the building into its context. To the east, a horizontal roof announces the newly built entrance to the quartier. To the north, a new volume containing a brasserie and a café defines the fourth side of the orthogonal “Place,” while engaging the square. To the southwest, a new multilevel food court and multiple dining halls overlook the Boulevard Circulaire.
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Left: The expanded podium improves site circulation and creates a series of airy and welcoming public spaces. Above: The building's slanting, highly visible roof is treated as the “fifth façade,” with a continuous surface of aerofoil louvers.
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Amsterdam, Netherlands
World Trade Centre Amsterdam
Client: ING Vastgoed Program: Hospitality, Office, Retail Size: 145,000 m2 / 1,600,000 ft2
A redevelopment of four buildings of the World Trade Centre, this reconfiguration of existing spaces invigorates and reconnects a formerly isolated location.
With a focus on creating flexible space, KPF designed a new office tower adjacent and fully integrated into the existing structures. Fitted with internal timber screens for solar control, the new tower's textured skeleton was designed to meet contemporary environmental performance measures. As required, all existing buildings remained in operation throughout all phases of design and construction. The complete remodeling of the space around the existing multi-tenant buildings was key to diversifying the site use. Such remodeling was needed to provide public amenities for building users and local residents. To this end, KPF’s design strategy was to stretch a sweeping wave form roof over the entire site to enclose a naturally-ventilated public atrium around the existing building. The new roof, which extends 300 meters (985 feet) across the site, allows for a spacious atrium accommodating shops, restaurants, and connections to mass transit.
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The sweeping wave of the roof extends over nearly the entire site, providing weather protection, solar control, and lighting.
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Hong Kong, PRC
The Landmark
Client: Hongkong Land Program: Hospitality, Mixed-Use, Office, Renovation, Retail Size: 24,000 m2 / 258,000 ft2
One of the premier retail centers in Asia, The Landmark Hong Kong remains at the cutting edge of international luxury retail culture through a series of thoughtful renovations.
Following the renovation of the original 1970’s building, KPF designed the renovation and expansion of the building’s façade along Queen’s Road Central, including the center’s new atrium entrance, additional retail space and restaurants in the new and the existing atria, double-height storefronts that are part of the flagship retail concept, and a Harvey Nichols department store and a Louis Vuitton superstore on Pedder Street. A suspended, three-story wall of folded vertical glass panels envelopes the new retail podium along Queen’s Road Central, unifying the complex’s disparate elements. Conceived as a diaphanous veil, the zig-zag glass screen alternately obscures and reveals the retail environment, connecting the interior activity to the vibrant streets of Central. In order to maintain its competitive edge, the complex is regularly updated to ensure that its design and amenities reflect the pervading retail culture of Hong Kong.
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