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Spanning the entire New York City block between 9th and 10th Avenues and from 28th to 30th Streets, Morgan North was once the city’s largest Postal Service distribution center. But somehow, the 645,000-square-foot facility built in 1933 — which has historically been recognized at the city, state and federal levels — wasn’t registered as a legal, permitted building. This proved to be just one of many complications in the building’s redevelopment when Montroy DeMarco Architecture and Shimoda Design Group were tasked with transforming it into a mixed-use and sustainable structure. Their recently completed plan transformed the historic building, inserted new office space, built 15 new elevators, restored the Ninth Avenue lobby, built two new ones, and worked with landscape architect HM White to create a rooftop pavilion and garden.
Previously, the tracks ran from the nearby High Line to the second floor of the building on the corner of Tenth Avenue, which commemorates Abraham Lincoln’s first stop into New York as President of the United States. “The corner actually has a two-story volume, but it also has another floor, where the train comes in,” explains Joey Shimoda, co-founder of Shimoda Design Group. “We really wanted to express the support for the train The structure needed.”
For the new lobby, designers exposed the structure’s girders and leaned toward a railroad aesthetic: punched windows, new circular elevator signs and recessed seating areas reminiscent of railroad café cars. To top it off, recessed ceiling lighting fixtures illuminate the banquette and fire pit coffee table. Wrapped in long panels of Douglas fir planks and terrazzo floors, the lobby is a modern, hospitality-oriented approach that echoes the building’s railyard past and remains distinct from the lobby’s original Art Deco design. significance.
The second new lobby on 30th Street continues this theme but is slightly different. Likewise, wooden panels wrap the space, providing clean, continuous walls. Since the architect could not intervene in the building, the new office lobby had to maintain strict loading dock dimensions. Shimoda and his team maximized the space with sculptural lighting and strategically placed seating.
The fifth to tenth floors above provide new office space. These floors once housed the postmaster, administrative staff and postal police, who monitored staff to ensure no packages were stolen or mishandled. Police occupied a closed walkway surrounding the space: they could see through gaps in the balcony, but workers below could not see inside. The architects repurposed these mezzanines to create a new addition on the seventh floor split level. “We determined that these postal walkways were factored into the building’s square footage. We were able to design approximately 22,000 square feet [additional] said Richard DeMarco, principal and partner at Montroy DeMarco Architecture.
While the interior office floors were being renovated, the architects created four additional outdoor terraces, as well as a pavilion and garden on the seventh floor. The pavilion features two 60-foot-wide transparent bays and a 17-foot-tall steel frame, complete with a massive skylight system. It is surrounded on two sides by gardens, integrating the interior with nature and hiding the brick perimeter. “It’s part of the design intent that by incorporating the selection of plants, their volume and topography, we’re doing everything we can to eliminate any evidence that you’re in a structure,” Hank White, founder of Majesty White, told one.
From the pavilion, the remainder of the nearly 84,000-square-foot garden winds its way through the remainder of the seventh floor. The microclimate landscape design divides the layout into three plant types: upland forest, central shrubland and lowland meadow further south. The upland forest consists of a variety of evergreens and coniferous hedges along the northern edge, acting as a wind-slowing shelterbelt. Conversely, on the sunnier south side, these plants provide shade by reflecting summer flowers among carefully placed leafy trees.
In all areas, the architects used regional, native plant communities. Some plantings are on raised platforms or tilted at an angle to create a sense of rhythm and topography in the space. Throughout, artful trellises and curved walkways of decomposed granite and wood-like ceramic paving slabs connect seasonal plantings. Flexible functionality and seating are built into every corner of the garden, from sunset terraces and event lawns to isolated areas for outdoor work.
Different depths and materials make the large park feel as natural as possible. As with the design of the building’s interior, it pays homage to the site’s history through refurbished vintage train cars to support meetings and other events. An impressive roof deck and new interiors both give this unique historic building a modern twist without losing the feel of its past.
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