Brookfield Place Building Tour
Report by Son Dang
This tour was kindly supported/organized by:
Brookfield Place, originally the World Financial Center, is an 8.5 million-square-foot (790,000-square-meter) complex of five office buildings and public shops and restaurants located in the Battery Park City neighborhood, across from the World Trade Center site. Overlooking the Hudson River, Brookfield Place has been home to offices of various companies including Bank of America, RBC Capital Markets, Time Inc., and American Express, among others, and is currently the United States headquarters for Brookfield Property Group.
The tour began with a presentation on the recent redevelopment of the site, which completed in 2015, by Brookfield. The redevelopment transformed the site from a finance-focused space to one for general office and retail leasing. It also turned the complex from something that was not used outside of regular business hours into an entertainment destination suitable for the whole family. Currently the site provides 8 million square feet (740,000 square meters) of office space and over 300,000 square feet (28,000 square meters) of retail space, 95% of which have been leased. After the presentation, attendees toured the Brookfield office located in Four World Trade Center. The office features an open seating plan where every employee, including at the executive level, works in a cubicle.
Following the office tour, attendees got to visit the newly renovated retail and public areas of the complex. The enormous space features a winter garden with large glass panels to allow maximum sunlight for the indoor palm trees. The open space is used for various events such as concerts and family days throughout the year. The tour then headed to the mezzanine overlooking the renovated entrance. One of the biggest challenges of the renovation was figuring out how to modernize the complex without drastically changing the overall structure of the buildings. The team did this by replacing outdated colored glass panels with transparent ones and installing modern sculptural elements at the front entrance. Many thanks to Brookfield Property Group for organizing the tour.
This tour was kindly supported/organized by:
Brookfield Place, originally the World Financial Center, is an 8.5 million-square-foot (790,000-square-meter) complex of five office buildings and public shops and restaurants located in the Battery Park City neighborhood, across from the World Trade Center site. Overlooking the Hudson River, Brookfield Place has been home to offices of various companies including Bank of America, RBC Capital Markets, Time Inc., and American Express, among others, and is currently the United States headquarters for Brookfield Property Group.
The tour began with a presentation on the recent redevelopment of the site, which completed in 2015, by Brookfield. The redevelopment transformed the site from a finance-focused space to one for general office and retail leasing. It also turned the complex from something that was not used outside of regular business hours into an entertainment destination suitable for the whole family. Currently the site provides 8 million square feet (740,000 square meters) of office space and over 300,000 square feet (28,000 square meters) of retail space, 95% of which have been leased. After the presentation, attendees toured the Brookfield office located in Four World Trade Center. The office features an open seating plan where every employee, including at the executive level, works in a cubicle.
Following the office tour, attendees got to visit the newly renovated retail and public areas of the complex. The enormous space features a winter garden with large glass panels to allow maximum sunlight for the indoor palm trees. The open space is used for various events such as concerts and family days throughout the year. The tour then headed to the mezzanine overlooking the renovated entrance. One of the biggest challenges of the renovation was figuring out how to modernize the complex without drastically changing the overall structure of the buildings. The team did this by replacing outdated colored glass panels with transparent ones and installing modern sculptural elements at the front entrance. Many thanks to Brookfield Property Group for organizing the tour.
