Portfolio | Projects & Clients | Awards | Design Process

COFRA/Good Energies Office

New York, New York

COFRA, a private holding company for a number of real estate and retail companies also owns Good Energies, a venture capital firm specializing in emerging building and energy technologies.   HLB worked with Perkins + Will to provide an efficient, functional and pleasant space that embodied the company's commitment to global citizenship.  A design goal of LEED Gold, led to an approach that sought to reduce overall energy usage more than 25% below ASHRAE 90.1 2004.

The aggressive conservation goal pushed the entire design team to look for the most efficient technology available in each discipline.  For the lighting team, this meant the integration of new lamp types as well as innovative control technology designed to combine both traditional, preset, architectural lighting control and daylight harvesting.  Lighting in perimeter offices is controlled by photo sensors as are window shades to allow for maximum efficiency.  Personal over-rides allow occupants to adjust their exposure to sunlight and/or electric light as necessary throughout the work day.  Alternatively, occupants can elect to allow the control system's preset levels modulate light levels during the day.  Because interior work stations share views and receive daylight contributions from the perimeter offices' glass walls, lighting levels in the corridors were deliberately reduced slightly; creating a carefully composed space that visually defines transition areas and provides a significant reduction in energy usage.

COFRA/Good Energies has received the U.S. Green Building Council's Gold LEED certification and the lighting design has been awarded an IESNA Illumination Award of Merit.