Contract Magazine - February/March 2020 - 51

PHOTOGRAPHY: JEREMY FRECHETTE (TOP), PALLAVI WAGLE (BOTTOM)

4 Times Square Food Hall,
New York
Whereas the lighting in New York's Times Square is cacophonous, it's subtly
soothing on the fourth floor of 4 Times Square, otherwise known as the former
Condé Nast headquarters and cafeteria. At the start of Y2K, the employee cafeteria
was a sensation partly because Frank Gehry-hot off the heels of his Guggenheim
Bilbao fame-designed it. Today, Condé Nast no longer resides there, and
the exclusive dining space is now inclusive thanks to a renovation and expansion
by STUDIOS Architecture and a new human-centric lighting concept by Loop
Lighting and USAI.
With current "resimercial" workplace trends in mind-the most popular
ones being occupant wellness and flexible spaces-the building owner, Durst
Corporation, sought to provide an amenity that could meet such criteria. At the
same time, it desired to keep the architecturally significant cafeteria. The client
finally concluded that the rest of the fourth floor should be an extension of
amenities-only for all building tenants to enjoy as opposed to one company.

The architects transformed the remaining space into a hospitality suite
comprising a farm-to-table artisanal food hall, coffee bar, and garden-evoking
flexible space. (The south end of the floor, however, features a drastically different
group of bookable meeting and event spaces run by Convene.) To visually connect
the dining and lounging zones with Gehry's signature undulating forms, the project
team incorporated elements ranging from sinuous seating to a 180-degree
curved living wall.
Meanwhile, the original moody cafeteria received a brightened face-lift
tying it to the new biophilic spaces-while still being respectful of Gehry's design,
of course. The team kept the undulating glass but refinished the blue titanium
ceiling panels and twisting columns in white, reupholstered the original banquettes
in a light greige hue, replaced the laminate flooring with white oak, and swapped
out the yellow tables with crisp white thermoformed Corian tables.
Finally, STUDIOS worked with Loop Lighting and USAI to develop a lighting
program that could promote wellness. "With a much larger floor plate, we weren't
looking at one room," says John Newman, a partner at Loop Lighting. "We were
looking to solve a design problem that reimagined the one-of-a-kind architectural
element and weave it through the new food hall, dining area, café, meeting spaces,
and other areas."
The resulting program mingles layers of color LEDs and USAI's Color Select
tunable-white LEDs to mimic the sun's natural cycle throughout the day-in turn
tapping into emotional connections to the outdoors and circadian rhythms. From
6 a.m. to 7 a.m., a warm white (2700 Kelvin) paired with amber accents mimics
a sunrise to gently wake up the early birds. When people are breakfasting in the
next few hours, the lights shift to a more neutral warm white without the added
colors. At noon, the LEDs transition into an energizing cool white (3700K),
accompanied by light blue tones to evoke blue skies. Mid-afternoon, the white
lights transition back to a more neutral tone (3200K) while the light blue gradually
deepens into more saturated blues. At 5 p.m.-the building's happy hour-the
lighting returns to a warm (2700K) white but with magenta accents, simulating
sunset. The luminaires dim to candlelight levels from 6 p.m. onward, when the space
becomes a bar and lounge. Aiding one's circadian rhythm, the lighting scheme
is a far cry-and respite-from the Times Square illuminations outside. c

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