Jones Lang LaSalle
A New Headquarters (Continuity Included)
By CLAIRE WILSON
WITH expansive views of sea and sky, the redesigned headquarters of the investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in Manhattan's financial district was by most accounts nothing short of spectacular when it was completed in 1999.
Wood paneling throughout the offices was chosen to reflect the company's banking role on Wall Street, while the canny use of glass panels sent the message that it was also innovative, not stodgy. The staff of 175 loved the space, and the Society of American Registered Architects gave the architects, Cetra/Ruddy, a top award for corporate interiors.
But on Sept. 11, 2001, Keefe, Bruyette's offices — 98,000 square feet on the 88th and 89th floors in the World Trade Center's south tower — were destroyed, and 67 employees died, including Joseph J. Berry, the chairman and co-chief executive officer. The investment bank had been at the World Trade Center since 1984.
Two weeks later, Cetra/Ruddy was back on the job designing another headquarters for the company — on the fourth, fifth and a portion of the sixth floors of the Equitable Building in Midtown Manhattan, at 787 Seventh Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets. Racing against a series of seemingly impossible deadlines, larger-than-anticipated additions to the staff and a continual shifting of departments, Cetra/Ruddy managed to finish the first phase of the project in March 2002. The last of the four phases was completed at the end of last year.
The employees seem pleased with their new home, which includes 110,000 square feet of office space highlighted by upbeat blues and greens, stainless steel, glass, exotic woods and subtly patterned carpets.
"Once in a while, Andy Senchak will call me and say, 'I am sitting in my conference room and I just love it,' " said Nancy Ruddy, president of Cetra/Ruddy, referring to Keefe, Bruyette's vice chairman and president. Ms. Ruddy founded Cetra/Ruddy in 1987 with her husband, John Cetra, who is an executive vice president.
Like its space in the World Trade Center, Keefe, Bruyette's new headquarters includes the liberal use of wood and glass. But that is where the similarities end. "We felt it had to be a new beginning but with continuity," said Ms. Ruddy, whose architectural firm has also worked on projects like the 60-story Orion condominiums and the conversion of the Barbizon and Stanhope Hotels in Manhattan.
Keefe, Bruyette's current offices are on low floors, with tinted windows and without views. To maximize light and to create a feeling of openness, Cetra/Ruddy devised an interior based on a series of floating, interconnected planes of custom-designed pale green striated glass, lacquer, textiles and rich makore wood from Africa. Cetra/Ruddy described the design as "Mondrianesque," referring to the bold geometry of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
All of the planes intersect somehow and appear to float, letting light flow around them. The staggered angles of the panels can give the illusion of a larger space or a sense of privacy, depending on their placement.
The panels idea is also integrated into custom-made tables in conference rooms, combining wood with other materials like stainless steel or synthetic stone.
On the fourth floor, the glass partition and open door of the office of John G. Duffy, the chairman and chief executive, imply access, but a floating panel of makore wood, which looks a little like mahogany, shields his personal workspace from view. For the glass offices of the senior executives along a trafficked hallway between the reception area and the trading floor, striations in the glass create the same panel effect. The glass isolates them to a degree, but it does not shut them off from office life.
"It's an open environment but without the feeling that you're in a fishbowl," Ms. Ruddy said.
Accessible offices are a feature of the layout, which is intended to encourage casual interaction among the 259 employees in the New York office. On the fifth floor, which includes the offices of the corporate finance department, there is a furnished living room-dining room configuration with its own bathroom and kitchen. The offices of two other executives flank a small, glass-walled conference room.
"This is a very familial organization that is very different from a lot of investment banks," Ms. Ruddy said. "Everybody walks around in shirtsleeves."
The executive department is adjacent to the bustling trading floor, which was originally designed for 64 desks but has been expanded in stages to accommodate 200. Partitioned with curved glass panels to soften the high-tech edge, rows of trading desks are designed for ease of use.
Monitors are mounted on low, gray steel slat walls running between rows of desks while, underneath, cabinets conceal high-tech equipment that slides out easily for repair or updating. Television monitors flicker all around, and a stock ticker runs at ceiling height along one wall.
The green glass partitions pick up the greens and blues of the carpet, whose busy linear pattern looks like data being transmitted. The fresh colors give an upbeat feel to the trading floor. To achieve a vaulted effect on the ceiling of the trading floor, the architects added two and a half feet of height by going up as far as the beams, then added two linked convex curves to run the length of the room. The molded panels are lighted from behind.
The trading floor was one of the more complicated installations, but probably among the most important to Keefe Bruyette's operation. It was designed and completed quickly, according to Eugene Flotteron, a project executive at Cetra/Ruddy. "We had this up and running in eight weeks," Mr. Flotteron said.
Multiple conference rooms are all outfitted with audio-visual equipment so that meetings can be broadcast to branches around the United States and in London. The largest seats 60 people — 30 at the table and 30 along the periphery in chairs designed by Cetra/Ruddy. Like old-fashioned school desks, the chairs have moveable tablets that can hold papers or, at the daily morning meeting, coffee and a bagel.
"I always forget how impressive this room is, but I get reminded," Mr. Duffy, the chief executive, said. "I had a bank in from Mississippi the other day, and the guy was thinking we could fit four branches in the conference room we have here."
Reflecting back to 9/11, when he lost a son, Christopher, 23, who was an assistant trader on Keefe Bruyette's equity desk, Mr. Duffy still seems a bit amazed that the new headquarters turned out as well as it did.
"We were pleasantly surprised, given the pressure we put them under," said Mr. Duffy, who did his best to pull his grieving staff together while scrambling to get the company running again. "We would have accepted something a lot less."
A New Headquarters (Continuity Included)
By CLAIRE WILSON
WITH expansive views of sea and sky, the redesigned headquarters of the investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in Manhattan's financial district was by most accounts nothing short of spectacular when it was completed in 1999.
Wood paneling throughout the offices was chosen to reflect the company's banking role on Wall Street, while the canny use of glass panels sent the message that it was also innovative, not stodgy. The staff of 175 loved the space, and the Society of American Registered Architects gave the architects, Cetra/Ruddy, a top award for corporate interiors.
But on Sept. 11, 2001, Keefe, Bruyette's offices — 98,000 square feet on the 88th and 89th floors in the World Trade Center's south tower — were destroyed, and 67 employees died, including Joseph J. Berry, the chairman and co-chief executive officer. The investment bank had been at the World Trade Center since 1984.
Two weeks later, Cetra/Ruddy was back on the job designing another headquarters for the company — on the fourth, fifth and a portion of the sixth floors of the Equitable Building in Midtown Manhattan, at 787 Seventh Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets. Racing against a series of seemingly impossible deadlines, larger-than-anticipated additions to the staff and a continual shifting of departments, Cetra/Ruddy managed to finish the first phase of the project in March 2002. The last of the four phases was completed at the end of last year.
The employees seem pleased with their new home, which includes 110,000 square feet of office space highlighted by upbeat blues and greens, stainless steel, glass, exotic woods and subtly patterned carpets.
"Once in a while, Andy Senchak will call me and say, 'I am sitting in my conference room and I just love it,' " said Nancy Ruddy, president of Cetra/Ruddy, referring to Keefe, Bruyette's vice chairman and president. Ms. Ruddy founded Cetra/Ruddy in 1987 with her husband, John Cetra, who is an executive vice president.
Like its space in the World Trade Center, Keefe, Bruyette's new headquarters includes the liberal use of wood and glass. But that is where the similarities end. "We felt it had to be a new beginning but with continuity," said Ms. Ruddy, whose architectural firm has also worked on projects like the 60-story Orion condominiums and the conversion of the Barbizon and Stanhope Hotels in Manhattan.
Keefe, Bruyette's current offices are on low floors, with tinted windows and without views. To maximize light and to create a feeling of openness, Cetra/Ruddy devised an interior based on a series of floating, interconnected planes of custom-designed pale green striated glass, lacquer, textiles and rich makore wood from Africa. Cetra/Ruddy described the design as "Mondrianesque," referring to the bold geometry of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
All of the planes intersect somehow and appear to float, letting light flow around them. The staggered angles of the panels can give the illusion of a larger space or a sense of privacy, depending on their placement.
The panels idea is also integrated into custom-made tables in conference rooms, combining wood with other materials like stainless steel or synthetic stone.
On the fourth floor, the glass partition and open door of the office of John G. Duffy, the chairman and chief executive, imply access, but a floating panel of makore wood, which looks a little like mahogany, shields his personal workspace from view. For the glass offices of the senior executives along a trafficked hallway between the reception area and the trading floor, striations in the glass create the same panel effect. The glass isolates them to a degree, but it does not shut them off from office life.
"It's an open environment but without the feeling that you're in a fishbowl," Ms. Ruddy said.
Accessible offices are a feature of the layout, which is intended to encourage casual interaction among the 259 employees in the New York office. On the fifth floor, which includes the offices of the corporate finance department, there is a furnished living room-dining room configuration with its own bathroom and kitchen. The offices of two other executives flank a small, glass-walled conference room.
"This is a very familial organization that is very different from a lot of investment banks," Ms. Ruddy said. "Everybody walks around in shirtsleeves."
The executive department is adjacent to the bustling trading floor, which was originally designed for 64 desks but has been expanded in stages to accommodate 200. Partitioned with curved glass panels to soften the high-tech edge, rows of trading desks are designed for ease of use.
Monitors are mounted on low, gray steel slat walls running between rows of desks while, underneath, cabinets conceal high-tech equipment that slides out easily for repair or updating. Television monitors flicker all around, and a stock ticker runs at ceiling height along one wall.
The green glass partitions pick up the greens and blues of the carpet, whose busy linear pattern looks like data being transmitted. The fresh colors give an upbeat feel to the trading floor. To achieve a vaulted effect on the ceiling of the trading floor, the architects added two and a half feet of height by going up as far as the beams, then added two linked convex curves to run the length of the room. The molded panels are lighted from behind.
The trading floor was one of the more complicated installations, but probably among the most important to Keefe Bruyette's operation. It was designed and completed quickly, according to Eugene Flotteron, a project executive at Cetra/Ruddy. "We had this up and running in eight weeks," Mr. Flotteron said.
Multiple conference rooms are all outfitted with audio-visual equipment so that meetings can be broadcast to branches around the United States and in London. The largest seats 60 people — 30 at the table and 30 along the periphery in chairs designed by Cetra/Ruddy. Like old-fashioned school desks, the chairs have moveable tablets that can hold papers or, at the daily morning meeting, coffee and a bagel.
"I always forget how impressive this room is, but I get reminded," Mr. Duffy, the chief executive, said. "I had a bank in from Mississippi the other day, and the guy was thinking we could fit four branches in the conference room we have here."
Reflecting back to 9/11, when he lost a son, Christopher, 23, who was an assistant trader on Keefe Bruyette's equity desk, Mr. Duffy still seems a bit amazed that the new headquarters turned out as well as it did.
"We were pleasantly surprised, given the pressure we put them under," said Mr. Duffy, who did his best to pull his grieving staff together while scrambling to get the company running again. "We would have accepted something a lot less."
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 10:09 AM
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