(Photo illustration by The Real Deal)
It was hard to miss the dozens of hardhats on lunch break as they poured out of a 20-story office building on Manhattan’s Far West Side. Some ducked into nearby shops, while others lined up at street vendors for chicken and rice.
The construction crew has been working to overhaul the 636,000-square-foot property just across from Hudson Yards, a job that will transform the nearly century-old building into a Class A office tower.
When 601W Companies closed on the Amazon-anchored building at 410 10th Avenue for $952.5 million in December, it was the second biggest investment sale in the city’s pandemic-ravaged market in 2020. And it was a perfect illustration of 601W’s playbook.
Walton Street Capital accelerated its plan to modernize the lobby at 401 N. Michigan Ave.
A few months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it became more clear that companies weren t coming back in full force to its office building at 401 N. Michigan Ave. anytime soon, Walton Street Capital saw there was a moment to be seized.
With a fraction of the normal foot traffic in the 35-story building each day and more construction contractors scrambling for jobs, the Chicago-based firm scrapped its original plan to modernize the lobby with new lighting, a 1,000-square-foot wall garden and a revamped security desk in 2021 and did it all in 2020 instead.
Top 10 LEED-Certified Buildings in California in 2020
A roundup of notable office buildings that were awarded LEED Platinum certification this year. Dec172020
As companies looked to reassess their processes and structure them around a new paradigm involving work-from-home options and safety practices meant to shield employees from the ongoing health crisis, massive office buildings remained nearly empty for a good part of 2020. These new challenges have also emphasized the importance of green building practices and technologies, as they provide the foundation for something bigger: the safety and health of the people working in them.
As such, we have again turned to U.S. Green Building Council Project Directory data to review top LEED-certified buildings in California this year through November. Below is a list comprising some of the highest-scoring office projects in the state.