Midtown Sky Garden

Redefining the 17th floor of the historic Western Publishing Building in midtown Manhattan, HMWhite designed a contemporary garden terrace extension for Shorenstein Properties’ new corporate offices. The 6,500 square-foot living roof establishes a biophilic transformation of the office environment and daily employee experience. The lush garden terrace wraps the building and visually merges interior office spaces with a meadow landscape. The entire garden was carefully engineered to mesh with the building’s mid-century infrastructure and to prevent potential wind uplift, accommodate significant load restrictions and support a sophisticated, multi-seasonal plant palette tolerant of extreme growing conditions. The elongated meadow design incorporates drought tolerant grasses, perennials and spring bulbs punctuated by flowering trees in specific structurally bolstered locations. The office interior links with the exterior via a series of wooden platforms embedded in the landscape creating flexible “break-out” meeting spaces and places of respite.