NEW YORK – Moed de Armas & Shannon (www.mdeas.com), a leading national architecture and design firm, has been awarded the 2013 American Institute of Architects New York State (www.aianys.org) “Design Award of Excellence for Large Commercial/Industrial Projects.”
The honor recognizes the firm’s work on behalf of the Equity Office Properties project, “The Cubes,” located at 120 West 42nd Street in Manhattan. The AIANYS Design Awards Program was instituted to celebrate, honor and promote excellence in design by New York state architects for their creativity and imagination in solving design problems for their clients and to generate greater public interest in architecture.
The award winning projects demonstrate the creative skills of their architects and the good use of available resources. The awards and their recipients – architects, clients, consultants and contractors – stand as affirmation of the diversity and quality of outstanding architecture. “The Cubes offered our team the opportunity to completely re-imagine an urban space that, for many years, was seen as unusable,” said Dan Shannon, a principal with Moed de Armas & Shannon.
“Working with our clients at Equity Office Properties, we have created an engaging, light-filled space that truly captures the ever-changing dynamic of 42nd Street. We are honored to receive this award and thank the panel of judges for recognizing this unique project.” The Cubes spans the full width of the block between 41st and 42nd streets just 100 feet west of Sixth Avenue and Bryant Park. The complex includes the 15,000 square foot plaza at 1095 Avenue of the Americas and the adjacent retail complex.
Comprising three occupied floors and approximately 23,000 square feet of above-grade retail with an additional 55,000 square feet of below-grade retail space, The Cubes was conceived as a Jewel Box icon to flank the western edge of the plaza. The glass and steel structure solidifies the plaza’s prominence as an active destination by surrounding the plaza, including below grade, with spaces for retail, restaurants and rest.
The Cubes also incorporates multiple outdoor spaces totaling 4,300 square feet. The building’s overall design concept employs several distinct boxes shifted in relation to one another to contrast the monolithic character of adjacent 1095 Avenue of the Americas while maintaining the uniformity of its grid. Positioned as a gateway to Times Square and functioning as an extension of Bryant Park, The Cubes and the plaza at 1095 Avenue of the Americas turn this stretch of 42nd Street from a throughway into a destination.
The AIANYS has recognized outstanding works of architecture through its Design Awards Program each year since 1968. Projects eligible for the 2013 Design Awards were nominated in 14 distinct categories: Adaptive Reuse/Historic Preservation; Commercial/Industrial, Large Projects; Commercial/Industrial Small Projects; Institutional; Interiors; International; Pro Bono Projects; Residential Single Large Projects; Residential Single Small Projects; Residential Multi-Family; Sole Practitioner; Unbuilt, General; Unbuilt, Licensed Under 10 Years; and Urban Planning/Design. About Moed de Armas & Shannon Moed de Armas & Shannon, established in 1991, is an award-winning architecture firm based in New York City. With an expertise in high-performance glass facades, the firm's body of work is varied across project types, including commercial, public space, residential and interior projects.
Founded with a shared belief in classically modern architecture, the firm emphasizes a collaborative design process to develop elegant solutions to complex problems. The firm has spearheaded high-profile domestic and international projects for major developers including Macklowe Properties, Vornado Realty Trust, Brookfield Office Properties, Carlyle Group, Edison Properties, Equity Office Properties, Tishman Speyer, RFR Realty and many others.