Aragon begins construction on 17,000 s/f office at 60 East 42nd St.

Aragon Construction, has begun building Pine Brook Road Partner's newly-leased 17,000 s/f office space at One Grand Central Place, the 55-story W&H Properties tower in the Grand Central District at 60 East 42nd St. Aragon has teamed with architectural firm Watson & Associates in this gut renovation project involving the construction of 25 private offices, three conference rooms, one boardroom and two equipped pantries. "Everything is being built with extreme precision and meticulous attention," said Ramon Ocampo, associate architect at Watson & Associates. Ensuring the total acoustical privacy of each office was of the utmost importance to Pine Brook. To achieve this, Cerami & Associates, an acoustical consultant firm, became an integral member of the project team. Working with Aragon, they added acoustical duct lining above the conference room areas to minimize HVAC noise, and installed multiple layers of sound-damping dry wall throughout the offices. Pine Brook, wanting to maximize the number of private windowed offices, challenged the project architects to move the perimeter mechanical rooms inward all the while maintaining the highest ceiling heights possible throughout the space. In order to accomplish this, Aragon had to chop off the concrete fireproofing, replacing it with Intumescent paint. "The result is that despite the larger amount of ductwork crossing in and out from the core, the entire office still has great ceiling heights to capture the beautiful views," said Aragon president Alex Getelman. "Years of experience working on challenges of this nature, combined with constant client communication, enabled us to provide Pine Brook with everything they wanted for their new offices." Aragon has worked with W&H Properties for over seven years and has completed several projects at One Grand Central Place. In addition, Aragon recently delivered the 44th floor buildout for one of New York's leading PR firm, Gibbs & Soell.