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This week’s entry is 1212 Avenue of the Americas, a 24-story Emery Roth & Sons-designed property from 1963. Landlord Stawski Partners is revamping the first floor, entry and mechanicals of the 270,000-square-foot building between West 47th and West 48th streets, near Rockefeller Center.
While the building’s dark glass facade will stay, its drab ground floor is being refreshed. The property is getting a bronze marquee, a new lobby with fluted gray stone walls and matching stone floor, updated elevator cabs and a full-floor prebuilt office suite designed by Spectorgroup. LTL Architects oversaw the first-floor renovations and the mechanical upgrades. Jon Fales, Pierce Hance and Michelle Mean of Cushman & Wakefield advised Stawski Partners on the capital improvement program, and act as leasing agents for the property.
The lobby renovations include a new back wall clad in warm wood, a new gray stone reception desk and thin strips of bronze that run continuously across the ceiling, walls and floor, connected to vertical wooden LED light fixtures. The thin bronze strips also run vertically up the base of the back wall, and there is a bronze panel on the front of the new check-in desk.
“The last time we renovated the lobby was in the 1990s,” said Faith Ryan, CEO of Stawski Partners. “We took the time to update the look and use richer materials than what was there before.”
The mechanical systems also got a soup-to-nuts upgrade.
“The engineers at JB&B wanted to decrease our carbon footprint and increase energy savings, so they demolished the entire HVAC system of the building and replaced it with new boilers and chillers, new cooling towers and a building-management system so everything runs efficiently,” Ryan explained. Other improvements include touchless restroom access, a new emergency generator, a bike room and three new landscaped terraces for tenants.
The new 14,600-square-foot prebuilt on the 12th floor will have wooden accent paneling on the ceiling, blond wood midcentury modern-inspired furniture, and an open seating area with leather couches and armchairs with plants overhead, hanging from a long, horizontal light fixture.
Construction began in 2019 but was paused for much of 2020. Work is expected to wrap this summer.
Rebecca Baird-Remba can be reached at rbairdremba@commercialobserver.com.
