Silverstein Properties Launches Inspire, Combines Hospitality With Safety

The ideal work environment should inspire its inhabitants. The increasing concentration on work/life balance, combined with the mad dash away from office life due to COVID-19, has required office landlords to become hospitality professionals, seeking to not only guarantee safety, but to make time spent at their properties as desirable as possible for all involved.

It is with this in mind that Silverstein Properties designed INSPIRE Your Day, a hospitality-based, people-first workplace solution that offers a suite of hospitality services, programming, amenity spaces, and on-demand workspaces at their office properties in Manhattan, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Occupiers and their employees will have full access to any of the spaces or amenities at all of Silverstein’s properties, and can learn more about their availability via the company’s INSPIRE Your Day app.

With INSPIRE, Silverstein is helping people return to the office safely and confidently, while also setting trends that set the stage for the future of office life.

The idea for INSPIRE came about in 2016, after Silverstein hired a community manager for their residential portfolio on 42nd Street. This person served as a concierge, assembling social programming that was well received by residents and bolstered the company’s residential retention rate. The success of the residential program led to a similar hiring for their office portfolio in 2018, and under the direction of Lisa Bevacqua, the company’s executive vice president and director of asset management, INSPIRE was born.

“It started with fitness classes and quarterly social events for the customers in our office portfolio,” said Aisling Gregory, vice president of marketing and communications for Silverstein. “We also developed a proprietary app and used sign-up data to drive programming decisions.”

Based on this data, Silverstein developed flexible work and meeting spaces, cafes, yoga studios, classes and more — all of which are accessible to anyone who works in any Silverstein office property. These unique spaces — which combine scenic views, desirable amenities and workspaces with all of the tools required for maximum productivity — include a 5,000-square-foot rooftop terrace on the 17th floor of 3 World Trade Center, with seating and workspace galore; Wi-Fi access throughout; plus remarkable views of Lower Manhattan, New Jersey and the Hudson River.

There is also:

• – The Studio, an indoor lounge on the 10th floor of 7 World Trade Center, which includes daily fitness programming and a catered kitchen
• – Seventeen, a space with comfortable seating and individual workstations on the 17th floor of 1177 Avenue of the Americas
• – The Willow, on the 9th floor of 529 Fifth Avenue, named for a time in pre-industrial New York City, when the area was razed except for one willow tree on that exact spot
• – The Bankers Club, a 14,000-square-foot dining facility and rooftop spot named after the prestigious club that existed at the same location at 120 Broadway

• – Spaces at 1735 Market Street in Philadelphia and U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles

But access to every one of these swanky work and amenity spaces is just one perk of INSPIRE for occupiers and employees at Silverstein properties.

As part of the INSPIRE program, Silverstein engaged a pathogen monitoring service called Phylagen that alerts office workers if someone they have come in contact with is spreading airborne illness, such as COVID-19.

“People shed lots of germs in the air that settle as dust. Phylagen tests surfaces where the settled air has landed,” said Gregory. “So, from that little sample, they can see if somebody on a particular floor has been in contact with a specific type of germ. They then notify people who may have been infected to let them know they need to be tested.”

 The company also employs an online concierge through the INSPIRE app, and partnered with Great Performances and virtual food hall amenity Zuul Market to enable easy and safe delivery from a slew of area restaurants. And, to help further make it more comfortable for people to return to the office, INSPIRE includes Dojo, a space-planning tool that assists office managers in designing space for maximum safety.

“It has a lot of interesting features that help you figure out the most thoughtful use of your space, and provides heat maps showing things like infection risk analysis for each room,” said Gregory. “It’ll tell you, for example, that this small office should only be used by one person for an eight-hour stretch of time, or for this meeting room, you can have X number of people there for X number of hours in order for them to be safe.”

Larry A. Silverstein, chairman of Silverstein Properties, emphasizes how INSPIRE enhances safety in the workplace at a critical time, while also creating a people-friendly, hospitality-driven environment.

“As we emerge from the pandemic and companies prepare to transition back to the office, we are proud to offer a new, flexible approach to office, meeting and amenity space within the safest possible environment,” said Silverstein. “INSPIRE brings hospitality services, social and wellness programming, data-driven workplace technology and a flexible workspace solution under one umbrella.”

This past February, engineering consulting firm Thornton Tomasetti moved into Silverstein’s 120 Broadway, where the company’s employees make frequent use of the culinary options at the Bankers Club. Eli Gottlieb, managing principal at Thornton Tomasetti, said they’re even more excited about access to spaces throughout Silverstein’s portfolio.

“We’ve got 50-plus offices worldwide and 1,500 staffers in cities where Silverstein has buildings, as well as clients in those cities,” said Gottlieb. “It’s a real advantage for us to have access to some of these amenity spaces, whether it’s for a cafe or a place to be able to drop in and work. Especially in this sort of more flexible work environment, we’re all going to be in.”

While certain features have been available throughout the year, Silverstein plans a wide rollout of INSPIRE on Sept. 7. The company is excited for all of its tenants to enjoy a breadth of amenities and features that will not only help keep them safe in perilous times, but will also set a precedent for a working future that makes the best of office life.

“By offering the same hospitality services you may expect from a hotel, we’re able to keep our customers inspired to do their best work,” said Gregory. “We understand how your personal passions are equally as important as your work passions. We want to help you achieve both.”

View more articles on the future of office here.