Global Crossing
New York City
Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership

High-tech nervous system is the theme of this innovative interior

© Peter Aaron/Esto

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

Ixnet, a leader in the field of global dedicated extranet communications, took several floors as their new headquarters in an award-winning office building designed in the 1970’s by IM Pei. Due to a subsequent buy-out, the company is currently owned by and known as Global Crossing. Their offices, designed to project an extremely forward-looking identity, embody the baseline tenets of the company—connectivity, speed, security, and cutting-edge technology.

Stripping all extraneous information from space partitions, hung ceilings, standard lighting, and floor coverings, the design solution added back only what was required to express the spirit and function of a minimalist workspace. The result is an overlay and a pronounced juxtaposition: a twenty-first century, process-oriented enterprise in a classic twentieth-century corporate envelope.

The animator of the environment uses the metaphor of a "digital" nervous system. Projecting the qualities that lie at the heart of the firm, sculptural "neurons" float above workspaces and interweave into the shared and public areas. These forms, lit internally by fiber optic filaments, provide continuity, fluidity, and a soft ambient glow in an otherwise dimmed environment. The concept of the neuron and all it represents became so key a symbol that it was chosen to illustrate the cover of the company’s annual report.

As a response to both the spectacular views of New York from the top floors and the immediacy of communication which forms the firm’s core mission, the project became an experimental laboratory for exploring notions of transparency and translucency, openness and enclosure. Materials illustrating this include a graduated sandblasted glass (conference rooms), clear and frosted glass (executive offices), honey-combed sandwich fiberglass (sliding partitions), and fabric mesh (neurons). The core of the building is exaggerated as a dense counterpoint to the lightness and fluidity of the spaces, representing both the "central power plant" of the operation and the infiniteness of outer space.

Click here to see September 2001's Record Interiors.

Formal name of project:
Global Communications (Ixnet)

Location:
New York City

Client:
Global Crossing
Wall Street Plaza
88 Pine Street
New York, NY 10005

Architect's firm:
Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership
7 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10010
212-989-2624
212-727-1702 fax
mail@skolnick.com