UA Builders and Habjan Betancourt finish phases 1 and 2 of Indeed's Headquarters

Indeed’s headquarters - Manhattan, NY
Photo by Eric Laignel Photography

Manhattan, NY General contractor UA Builders Group and architect Habjan Betancourt completed phases 1 and 2 of the interior build-out of the New York offices of Indeed.com, an online employment search engine. Upon completion of phase 3, the new 125,000 s/f office will allow the firm to nearly triple its New York City operations, from 250 employees in its former 55,000 s/f location to more than 700 staffers when the entire project is completed. The new office is located at 1120 Sixth Ave.

“The 1120 Sixth Ave. building offers a truly unique experience for our employees and we wanted to ensure that the interiors match the prominence and quality of this prime location,” said Derek Stewart, head of real estate at Indeed. “The dramatic interior design and excellent, modern workplace layout concept, developed by Habjan Betancourt and built by UA Builders, pay homage to traditional industries – and employers – that call New York home. We have succeeded in our goal of creating an exciting, high-energy, and comfortable work environment that will attract top talent.”

“An exemplary collaboration between the client, designers, and the construction team allowed us to complete the first two phases of the project in only 12 months, from the beginning of design to move-in,” said Albert Gjonbalaj, CEO of UA Builders.

Phase 1 of the project encompassed floors 11 and 16, with 22,729 s/f and 23,584 s/f, respectively. Each of these office floors can accommodate 174 employees. Phase 2 included floors nine (34,378 s/f; this is an amenities floor with a 7,500 s/f outdoor terrace) and 13 (23,193 raw s/f, an office floor accommodating up to 160 employees). In total, Indeed will occupy five full floors. Phase 3, which is currently in design, will be the 12^th floor. In its former location, Indeed occupied just 55,000 s/f with a staff of 250. However, upon completion of all floors, the company’s New York operations will grow to include up to 700 staffers.

Indeed’s headquarters - Manhattan, NY
Photo by Eric Laignel Photography

The building, which is between 43rd and 44th Sts., is owned and managed by Edison Properties. JLL represented Indeed in the leasing deal executed in the second half of 2015, while Cushman & Wakefield represented Edison Properties. The project team also included the landscape architect Gunn Landscape Architecture, which designed the outdoor terrace.

“In initial meetings, Indeed defined their functional needs, including a highly collaborative layout in the organization of the office floors. The company wanted a comfortable and welcoming environment for both employees and visiting job applicants, as well as a strong corporate identity that explains the focus of the company’s operations– employment work in different industries,” said Agatha Habjan, principal and founder of Habjan Betancourt. Thus, the design team identified each floor with strong and supersized graphics, with each floor themed around one particular industry. “The ninth floor’s theme is arts and entertainment, the 11th floor’s theme is science and technology, the 13th floor’s theme is service and retail, and the 16th floor’s theme is transportation. This was a very economical way to introduce color and themes to each floor,” she added.

The main challenge for the project was the extremely tight schedule for design and construction. In addition, the terrace renovation was added to the project while construction was already ongoing. UA Builders accelerated the construction schedule for both the interiors and the terrace in order to meet the original delivery date. The design team was retained in August of 2015 and the designs for the first four floors were completed in four months. Design and construction of the first two phases took 12 months to move-in. “Because of the tight time frame, Habjan Betancourt and UA Builders developed an extremely fast-track schedule with the initial demolition and construction work taking place while the design was still ongoing. We also immediately pre-purchased long-lead items and materials,” said Gjonbalaj.

“Such an accelerated design and construction schedule was only possible thanks to a very collaborative and supportive client in Indeed and an incredible design and technical skill of the architectural team,” said UA Builders’ project manager, Terrence Lalli. “Indeed made decisions quickly and was clear and supportive in their direction and requirements.”

Optimized flexibility was important, too, while ensuring acoustical privacy and individual work when needed. These requirements were addressed by incorporating a high number of team rooms and privacy telephone rooms, which allow for private conversations and individual work, if needed. Flexible “benching” workspaces were designed throughout the rest of the offices. Benching creates an office space that promotes collaboration among colleagues. It is a workspace organization concept and style of furniture designed to give a unified appearance that also combines function and flexibility. Similar to cubicles but with no (or lower) walls, in benching, a team’s workspace becomes the focus of the working environment, instead of an individual’s personal workstation. Benching systems are highly flexible, allowing a company to easily accommodate both its workers’ changing needs and the fluctuating number of employees. In this instance, the benching system has movable pedestal-type workstations with a great deal of flexibility.

“To provide acoustical privacy, many meeting and interview spaces feature gypsum board walls that are up to eight inches thick,” explained UA Builders Superintendent James Norberg, who managed the site operations. Similarly, the glazing and glass doors in the meeting rooms include a double-glazing system with high acoustical insulation properties and a sliding door design that also ensures privacy of conversations.”

Indeed’s headquarters - Manhattan, NY
Photo by Eric Laignel Photography

It was important for Indeed to have a maximum amount of natural light in the space. Thus, the majority (approximately 90%) of meeting rooms and telephone rooms, which are located around the building’s core, feature a great deal of floor-to-ceiling glazing. Visual privacy is achieved with the use of some partial film frosting on the glazed areas with the remainder of the glazing clear to allow high amounts of natural light to penetrate in from the windows. Benching work spaces and social areas are located mainly along the perimeter of floor plates, thus providing access to expansive windows, natural light, and views of the New York City skyline.

Each floor features an elevator lobby with a simple wall design, polished concrete floors, and metal cloud ceiling systems that were custom-designed and fabricated to feature the Indeed logo punched into the metal panels. They are backlit so the logo is highly visible from the moment a visitor enters the space. From the elevator lobby, guests and employees enter a white corridor with polished concrete floors that connects two sides of the building, north and south. This corridor features strong graphic elements with each floor’s theme, so that the transportation floor (16th floor), for example, features a large graphic of a tunnel with moving lights suggesting driving through a tunnel with movement and speed. The building core with phone and meeting rooms surrounding it is lined with niches with subway or train-type benches.

Inside the conference rooms, the imagery relates to the airline industry with images of airplanes taking off at LaGuardia Airport presented in an abstract manner, with moving and taxiing airplanes. Another image was created in such a way that it seems as if the viewer is sitting on the wing of a plane. In another space on this floor, an entire wall is clad with license plates from different states that add color and texture while representing a different segment of the transportation industry.

On each office floor, as one enters from the elevator lobby, a dramatic, white panel-clad corridor leads either left or right to two distinct spaces. To the right is a conference room combined with a living room-like social space. To the left, the corridor leads to the pantry. The main pantry features banquette seating and coffee shop-type seating including long communal tables, with polished-concrete floors. Each floor’s pantry has different finishes but the layout is the same, featuring extensive counters with different manmade materials such as Caesarstone or Corian. Each pantry has an extensive seating area. The counters feature pull-out baskets underneath the counters with snacks available to all employees. Pantries each also feature a refrigerator with glass doors stocked with food and drinks supplied by Indeed. Behind main pantry area, there is a second utilitarian pantry for the storage of dirty dishes, brewing coffee, and other activities.

At the other end of the floor is the lounge-like living room/social space, adjacent to the conference rooms. It features sofas, a large television, armchairs, table lamps, and residential-type lighting in the ceilings. The flooring is carpet tile and the whole design and fabric selection for the furniture was meant to give these spaces a warm and relaxing residential look and feel.

Between these two sections of each floor there are workstations installed and organized into four quads of approximately 50 workstations each. The quads are “interrupted” by the pantry and the living room. These areas feature exposed structural ceiling beams and some of the infrastructure. In between the beams are acoustical ceiling panels. Daylight-controlled, indirect lighting is installed in the open work areas.

Indeed’s headquarters - Manhattan, NY
Photo by Eric Laignel Photography

Each floor features a wellness room and smaller spaces such as toilets, coat closets, and the independent distribution facility (IDF), which houses the Internet and data hubs. Each floor also has a robust sound system that is used for events and for celebrating sales made by employees, with celebratory music throughout each floor. Work floors feature minimal paper storage, as the company stores all records digitally.

The ninth floor is meant to provide amenities for the up to 700 employees the office floors will house. The arts and entertainment theme of this floor is represented through images of Harry Houdini, who performed the famous disappearing elephant act at the 1120 Sixth Ave. building site in 1918. This space features some flexible workspaces designed to support the roaming workstation approach as well as recreational and meeting spaces for employees. In addition to the elevator lobby, the ninth floor houses a reception area with a custom-designed and -built desk made of glossy black Corian. The irregular-shaped desk twists and turns around a central open area of 10 feet in diameter.

Behind the reception desk is an oversized marquis-type Indeed logo sign with letters that are approximately 4 ½ feet tall. The logo itself is 16 ft. wide and is installed on white painted drywall and composed of metal letters painted red inside with light bulbs inside each letter. The entrance to the reception area features a Herculite glazed storefront entrance made of solid glass with key card access. Adjacent to the reception area are four interview rooms about 6x10’ each, where interviews with job candidates take place. The entrances to each of these rooms are also Herculite glass doors. Each interview room looks out over Manhattan and the terrace outside. The interview rooms all have carpet tile.

The 7,500 s/f wraparound terrace has four Maglock key card access entrances from different points on the floor including the coffee bar (adjacent to the social space). The coffee bar features stools, a U-shaped bar counter that is 40 ft. long with a white Caesarstone countertop, chairs, tables, and small sofas. Within the coffee bar is a fully equipped industrial kitchen for catered events. Perhaps the most interesting architectural features are the three oversized glass chandeliers, each featuring 400 individual crystals. There is also a light “sculpture,” a fixture that is over 100’ of string lights installed on an airplane cable; it features about 1,000 lights. Other lighting includes high-hat LED fixtures. UA Builders installed an antique glass backsplash behind the sink of champagne-colored antique glass. The backsplash was installed continuously in three sections.

Indeed’s headquarters - Manhattan, NY
Photo by Eric Laignel Photography

UA removed about 2,500 square feet of concrete pavers from the terrace and replaced it with sustainable ipe wood pavers. Each paver is 2x2’ and 2” thick with additional sealant waterproofing protection. The terrace also houses an artificial lawn of 20x32’, multiple walking paths, seating, tables, and outdoor speakers. Both tables and seating are made of perforated metal to resist wind pressure on them. The lighting on the terrace was installed in and around custom-built planters that are made of aluminum and wood and vary from 12” wide and 6’ long to 16” wide and 9’ long. Lighting also includes hard-wired path lights along the walkways.

The interior of the floor features a large 20x20’ conference room with windows overlooking the terrace and two glass entry doors. This conference room and other smaller meeting rooms each features iPads on the outside, with schedules, so employees always know when rooms are available. Windows around this space start 2 ½’ above the floor and go to the ceilings to maximize the natural light and open up the views of the terrace and the city skyline to the people inside.

The ninth floor also houses a training room with two folding partitions that allow the company to hold meetings of different sizes; a second lounge area that is 30x20’ has couches, benches, and reading material on the walls; and a gymnasium for employees, that is 25’ long by 10’ wide and overlooks the terrace, with all of the equipment facing the windows. The space has about 10 exercise machines such as treadmills, bikes, and elliptical machines. The machines are all networked and computer controlled so employees can monitor their exercise progress. The gym, as well as the adjacent 15x20’ yoga room, have a rubber sports floor.

Finally, an IT help desk for employees is also installed on this floor. It features a wall-mounted, LED-lit sign framed by white alabaster panels, custom millwork, and a sliding frosted glass partition.

On this floor, the designers specified floating perforated metal ceilings by Armstrong in gunmetal gray and wire mesh ceiling panels that are 2x2’. In the bathrooms and other utility areas, there are high-hat lighting fixtures. Throughout the rest of the space, there are suspended lighting fixtures of 1 ½’ long, the majority are LED fixtures.