Two New York City landmark office towers renowned for their sustainability accomplishments have been named the BOMA Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) winners of The Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) award for 2011-2012.
Pictured above is the team from 575 Fifth, the L’Oreal US headquarters managed by Cushman & Wakefield which is nominated in the Corporate Facility category. Photo by Peter Loppacher.
The pre-war 230 Park Avenue and the 80s-generation 575 Fifth Avenue will receive their awards at the BOMA MAC ceremony in Pittsburgh in April 20, 2012 then go onto the BOMA International competition, which will announce its winners on June 26, 2012 at the BOMA International annual conference.
In the mid-1980’s when a 35-story commercial office building was rising at 575 Fifth Avenue, the global cosmetics giant, L’Oreal, selected the post-modern tower as its headquarters.
In the intervening decades, the corporation expanded and by the time MetLife purchased the building in 2005, L’Oreal had grown to occupy 80% of the tower.
At the same time, many of the corporations that had once built headquarters on Fifth Avenue, had left, diminishing the luster of the famed boulevard as a headquarters address.
MetLife, in conjunction with managing agent Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., undertook an ambitious renovation that would ultimately accommodate L’Oreal’s present and future needs, while repositioning the building with a state-of-the-art renovation of its base, public spaces and 21st Century sustainability as an Energy Star® tower.
The resulting new base, with its sleek Avenue presence and light-filled lobby and atrium, serves as the perfect portal for L’Oreal’s corporate headquarters and as a welcoming, upscale retail space.
Through its well-crafted and expertly planned repositioning of 575 Fifth Avenue, MetLife has set the standard for a new generation of Fifth Avenue properties.
By retaining the headquarters of L’Oreal, it has helped restore the viability of Fifth Avenue as a headquarters destination.
230 Park – owned and managed by Monday Properties – moves forward in the Operating Office Building category of over 1,000,000 s/f.
230 Park – owned and managed by Monday Properties – moves forward in the Operating Office Building category of over 1,000,000 s/f.
Created in the late 1920’s as the New York Central Railroad’s corporate headquarters, 230 Park Avenue was designed to be the keystone of Terminal City, a master-planned development that would have rivaled Rockefeller Center in size.
Then known as the NY Central Building, the1.4 million-sf, 36-story tower, with its 15-story wings astride Park Avenue, became an instant landmark and helped give rise to modern Park Avenue and its role as a premier business boulevard.
While Terminal City was never realized, 230 Park achieved both New York City and national landmark historical status. The gold-crowned tower is an historic favorite and revered as the “Crown Jewel” of Park Avenue.
Today the limestone and brick tower owner and managed by Monday Properties is a 21st Century landmark—it is New York City’s first and oldest building to achieve Energy Star®, BOMA 360 and LEED-EB Gold certifications, all made possible by a recently-completed 6-year, $70 million renovation, and the implementation of standard-setting best management practices.
Both buildings previously won the 2010-2011BOMA/NY Pinnacle Award, which is the New York local competition of the TOBY awards, the most prestigious award of its type in the real estate industry world-wide.
