Centra is a five-story 10,000 m2 office building located in the Metropark Business Park, west of New York. Now, after the reconstruction carried out by the KPF bureau, it is difficult to identify it as an ordinary office "box" of the 1980s, which stood here two years ago.
At the very beginning of work on the project, the authors had a productive idea - to cut out part of the volume in the western part of the building, albeit losing a little in area, but winning in aesthetics. The resulting cut was trimmed with transparent and darkened gray glass, and the volume of the fourth floor was turned into a cantilever stem, resting it on an asymmetric column resembling a tree. In the central part of it, a through rectangular hole has been cut in order for the sun to penetrate under the "canopy" of the office building.
An intermediate space appeared under the console, which relates both to the urban environment and to the interior of the building. The authors of the project call it the "city room". Indeed, the architects clearly used interior design techniques here. So, in the center of the "room" we see a work of art. The "ceiling" of this urban space is lined with wood and illuminated. The "walls" are made of glass and do not interfere with the visual connection between the street and the interior of the office. Above the heads of the "guests" there is a skylight. The residents of Aizelin fell in love with this square and now come here with friends to take pictures near the tree-column.
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