When it was built in Manhattan in 1913, the Woolworth Building–at the time, the tallest building in the world and one of the most technologically advanced–used the early 20th-century version of healthy office design. Every office was within 10 feet of a window for natural light, and a unique air circulation system brought cool air up and hot air down to keep the spaces comfortable. Inside an office on the 24th floor, one new tenant now plans to design a healthy space that is state of the art for the new millennium.
“Now, whenever we move or revitalize spaces, we treat them as a lab,” says Christine Bruckner, director at M Moser Associates. In the Woolworth Building, as in the company’s offices in Hong Kong and London and others in progress in San Francisco and Guangzhou, the company will use movable vertical walls of plant species known to purify air, and place them strategically in sight of desks, based on research that shows that productivity and mood improve when you can see greenery at work. The walls, made by a company called Naava, also have built-in fans to circulate air.
For M Moser, this type of office renovation lets its architects get firsthand experience with the spaces that it recommends to clients. But the spaces also serve as a showcase of the possibilities in older buildings.
There are also advantages: The Woolworth, like many older buildings, has windows that can be opened when pollution levels outside are low. More modern buildings are often sealed shut. Because the new office happens to be on the same floor as the original office of F.W. Woolworth, the five-and-dime kingpin who financed the whole building, it also has unusually high ceilings. The building lobby, with a cathedral-like design, arguably also might improve employees’ moods as they wait for an elevator.
There’s no reason, the architects say, why older buildings can’t be retrofitted to the highest standards for health. And when that happens, it can transform the experience of being at work. “We want to create spaces where at the end of the day, you are in better shape than when you started the day,” says Russ Drinker, global director of architecture, sustainability and environmental wellness at M Moser.