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Our client, BXP, wanted to redevelop a portion of the GM Building into an amenity center to incentivize future tenants and add value and program within the property. Our client’s brief was based on a year’s long listening tour which resulted in three major programmatic needs for the building club – an affordable grab and go café, a conference center with flex seating for up to 265, and a fitness center with an emphasis on wellness. These components were meant to ease the neighborhood’s lack of approachable amenities while making the building more self-sufficient. Our client allotted a 26,000 square foot suite on the building’s second floor for the club. Formerly a retail space, the tall ceiling heights and direct access to the building lobby made the location ideal for its new function.
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The GM Building is home to luxury brands and fine dining, which are often cost-prohibitive for workers and commuters. The club’s components are meant to offset the area's lack of accessible amenities while making the building more self-sufficient and attractive. Fitness and wellness being one of the three main components of the Savoy Club’s design, the fitness and wellness center was meant to be a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. The fitness center features a dedicated cycling studio, a large, sunlit group studio, and a physical therapy suite with private treatment rooms. Spa-like locker rooms have high-end finishes, dynamic lighting, plentiful and well-appointed grooming stations, and shower rooms with ensuite changing areas, among other features.
In addition to abundant equipment, Savoy Club's fitness center features a dedicated cycling studio, a large, sunlit group studio, and a physical therapy suite with private treatment rooms. The spa-like locker rooms have high-end finishes, dynamic lighting, plentiful and well-appointed grooming stations, and shower rooms with ensuite changing areas, among other features. Low-flow fixtures are utilized in these spaces to reduce water use. Physical therapy treatment areas further instill a sense of wellness.
Noted for its monumentality and timeless monochromatic palette of white marble, the GM Building's new amenity center was designed around grand architectural gestures, but in a warm, enveloping palette of marble, plaster, and white oak millwork befitting the hospitality nature of the new suite. Accompanying the neutral architectural palette, the artwork and furniture for the amenity spaces will layer in color and texture inspired by innovators of the GM Building and its fabled tenants. In particular, the interior color and material story will pay homage to the Damsels of Design—a group of female graduates of the Cranbrook Academy working for GM during the mid-twentieth century who pioneered materials like Ultrasuede and perfected the art of clay-modeling automobile prototypes. Creating a space full of light and air, an emphasis was placed on maintaining high ceiling heights throughout while still providing an intimate, personable environment through rich materiality and soft seating. Aimed to be used from day to night, dynamic white lighting is used throughout the amenity spaces tempering a warmer color temperature in the evening to emulate daylight while creating a softer appearance.
“Access to wellness resources is just as important as other job factors like compensation, location, and amenities,” said Hilary Spann, executive vice president, New York Region at BXP. “The GM Building’s new Savoy Club introduces unique spaces that encourage convenience, efficiency, and collaboration, all of which are important in our clients’ day-to-day lives. We’re dedicated to creating premier workplaces and look forward to the positive impact these new spaces will have on our clients.”
Fogarty Finger is an award-winning, interdisciplinary design studio of over 115 architects and designers dedicated to placemaking within the urban built environment. The forward-thinking design firm is responsible for prominent residential and commercial projects in New York City, Atlanta, Boston and elsewhere. Each project is informed by strong contextual references distinguished by a layered sense of materiality and refinement. The practice's recent projects include the redevelopment of the former Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburg – The Dime, 141 Willoughby in Downtown Brooklyn, five new buildings totaling over one million square feet in Gowanus, Brooklyn, Savoy Club at the GM Building, and Dock 72 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Founded in 2003, the firm is led by Chris Fogarty, AIA, and Robert Finger, AIA, who are industry leaders in full-service commercial architecture and interior design.
