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Case in point: Overhead, illuminated ceiling art, designed by French artist Pierre Huyghe, will invite tenants to pick up a controller and partake in a version of Atari’s 1972 Pong, one of the earliest arcade video games.
“We wanted something that really created a dynamic space within the lobby itself,” said Callie Haines, executive vice president and head of the Northeast region for Brookfield’s office business. She noted that this long-term installation — which was previously exhibited at the Venice Biennale and Paris’ Centre Pompidou — isn’t the kind of art to just sit there for a few people to appreciate.
Rather, it’s also a strategic, aesthetic tool that epitomizes a major goal of the lobby’s repositioning: to meet the demands of modern tenants. As a predominantly office building with select retail tenants (there’s a Starbucks on the ground floor), One Liberty isn’t exempt from Manhattan’s return-to-office challenges.
“You hear a lot about those third spaces where people want to go work as opposed to just sitting in their office buildings,” said Haines, “and we believe that the lobby will provide one of those spaces.”
Originally designed 50 years ago as the United States Steel Building, One Liberty has always had a not unsurprising Brutalist appearance, said Haines. Steel comprises the building’s exterior, highlighting the strength of the material that was once its harbinger. The lobby refresh, therefore, has the unique challenge of paying homage to the property’s strong, imposing design while balancing it with warmer features more inviting to tenants.
The solution? Italian travertine walls, which have a warm-cool tone, as well as large windows that usher light into the lobby. Meanwhile, the artwork — including that immersive Huyghe piece — will evoke a geometry in alignment with the building’s exterior.
The lobby will also feature column-free floor plates, double-height ceilings, custom furniture and Italian terrazzo floors.
Introducing an upgraded interior to a historic steel building may seem like a challenge, but it probably doesn’t hurt that the architecture team behind the repositioning is Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: the same firm that designed the building for its 1973 debut.
Haines attributes One Liberty’s intentional design features, in part, to pandemic-induced delays. Brookfield started to plan the lobby repositioning in 2019, but COVID-19 impacted that process, as well as the firm’s ability to nail desirable contracts, said Haines.
She doesn’t view that delay as a setback, however. “Frankly, I think it’s a good thing that we took that time to think,” she said, “because coming out of COVID, the needs of our tenant base have changed, to a certain extent.”
Over the last 20 years, the building has averaged an occupancy rate of 95 percent. The lobby’s repositioning announcement on Wednesday follows Brookfield landing a $750 million refinancing from Morgan Stanley in June, as well as an elevator modernization project undertaken during the pandemic.
Work at One Liberty began in late July, and is expected to take roughly two years to complete.
“Brookfield really invests in their buildings,” said Haines. “We’ve owned this building for a very, very long time, and we intend to do so. We really believe in our real estate, and real estate, like everything, needs a refresh in order to keep it fresh — and to keep it at the top of the market.”
Anna Staropoli can be reached at astaropoli@commercialobserver.com.
