RJA completes remodel at 1560 Broadway

Rosen Johnson Architects (RJA), the New York-based full-service architecture firm, has recently completed an addition and remodeling project at 1560 Broadway located in the heart of Times Square. Rosen Johnson was the design architect for an entirely new, four-story, 7,500 s/f entrance addition that houses a street-level lobby and sky lobby. The new 2,000 s/f ground floor lobby contains four shuttle elevators that whisk tenants and visitors to an expansive, fourth floor sky lobby leading to existing high rise elevators serving the 17-story office building's upper floors. "The design has given 1560 Broadway far greater street presence, and office tenants now experience a first class entrance, lobby and an amenity rich fourth floor sky lobby," said Paul Rosen principal of Rosen Johnson Architects, design architects for the 1560 Broadway project. "The owner's vision to create a sky lobby allowed fragmented retail spaces, recaptured shaft ways and two office floors to be combined creating roughly 60,000 s/f of contiguous retail space." "We're very pleased at the success of this large and complex project," said Brian Steinwurtzel, principal of Newmark Holdings, a co-owner of 1560 Broadway. "The design is fantastic, the new entrance and lobbies are world class, and the asset's performance will be forever improved with the retail space we identified." To accommodate Rosen Johnson's design for 1560 Broadway's addition and sky lobby a carefully paced development schedule was required. First, an existing six-story building at 165 West 46th Street, which had been acquired by 1560 Broadway's owners, was razed to make way for the addition and the redevelopment of the combined building's fourth floor Sky Lobby. "Our plans called for major changes to be made to an occupied commercial building, so each step had to be carefully coordinated with ownership to limit disruption to tenants," said Anthony Johnson, principal of Rosen Johnson Architects, design architects for the 1560 Broadway project. The four-story addition, which comprises 20 feet of frontage along West 46th Street, contains a new soaring entrance, marble and granite lobby, reception desk, security controls and four custom shuttle elevators that serve the entirely new fourth floor sky lobby. The shuttle elevators open on to the expansive sky lobby overlooking 46th Street and leading to the building's original high rise elevator bank. Materials in the sky lobby mirror those on the entrance level to create a seamless tenant and visitor experience. The striking entrance addition, sky lobby and new systems are now in place transforming 1560 Broadway. Office tenants and the building's many visitors are enjoying a Class A experience that includes destination dispatch elevators, a dedicated café, casual meeting spaces and washrooms set along the length of the sky lobby. Ownership, for its part, has realized roughly 60,000 s/f of retail in the heart of Times Square.