PENN 2 Repositioning, Manhattan

Vornado had a 1968 office building sitting on top of Penn Station and a choice: knock it down or keep the frame and change everything else. It kept the frame. PENN 2 is a roughly $750 million repositioning of 1.8 million square feet, and the new triple-glazed curtain wall went on as an over-clad rather than a replacement, which is why the structure never came out.

Project Scope

The 31-story tower was gutted and re-skinned floor to floor. Corner loggias were added on every level and the base floors extended west toward Seventh Avenue, producing a 430-foot blockfront with more than 100,000 square feet of double-height, column-free space plus a raised bustle addition. About 75,000 square feet of new outdoor terrace came with it. MdeAS Architects led the design with Gilsanz Murray Steficek on structure; Turner Construction ran it as construction manager. Vornado puts the embodied carbon avoided by keeping the frame at roughly 54.1 million kgCO2e against a demolition-and-rebuild case. The building targets LEED Platinum and Local Law 97 compliance. Leasing since completion has included Verizon relocating its headquarters, FGS Global taking 80,000 square feet and a 125,000 square foot Robinhood sublease.

Why It Matters

The over-clad is the technically interesting move and the commercially decisive one. Hanging a new wall outside the old one keeps the floor plates working and keeps the structure out of the demolition line item, and it converts an embodied-carbon argument into a schedule argument, which is the only version landlords act on. Whether 54.1 million kgCO2e is the right number is Vornado’s claim to defend. That the tower leased to a Fortune 20 headquarters afterward is not.

Project Team & Details