Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is one of the leading architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world, with a 75-year reputation for design excellence and a portfolio that includes some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Since its inception, SOM has been a leader in the research and development of specialized technologies, new processes and innovative ideas, many of which have had a palpable and lasting impact on the design profession and the physical environment.
The firm’s longstanding leadership in design and building technology has been honored with more than 1,700 awards for quality, innovation, and management. The American Institute of Architects has recognized SOM twice with its highest honor, the Architecture Firm Award—in 1962 and again in 1996. The firm maintains offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Abu Dhabi.
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The project creates nearly one hundred and eighty-six thousand square meters of new office space in Manhattan West, a development that has been more than 40 years in the making and rises above the active railroad tracks on the east side of the city, where it barely existed before. buildable land. The project represents an extraordinary achievement in urban development, structural engineering, and architecture with its vibrant mix of buildings and uses, over numerous active railway tracks.
This project, along with the first "One Manhattan West", is the largest tower in the complex and serves as a gateway to the area. The project is conceived as a new city program that has ended, being the most extensive reform produced in the neighborhood, where 6 new new mixed-use buildings appear that are organized by a series of squares, covering the train tracks.
Two Manhattan West joins its counterpart, One Manhattan West, a tower completed in 2019, along with four other buildings – three designed by SOM and all but one calculated by SOM – that provide four thousand square meters of public space, offices, residences, hospitality, and retail. Together, this vibrant new destination forms the crucial missing link in a chain of pedestrian paths linking the West Side from Penn Station to the Hudson River.
Both towers are covered with high-performance glass that generates an extraordinary dialogue with the sky that can be perceived from the new public spaces. The ground floor lobbies have a clear height of 3 stories, offering corner-to-corner views to show the central open space to pedestrians. This is achieved by being a central-plan building with a central core and columns on the perimeter that support the tower.
Two Manhattan West by SOM. Photograph by Dave Burk.
Project description by SOM
One and Two Manhattan West are two office towers in Manhattan West, a seven-million-square-foot, mixed-use neighborhood, developed by Brookfield Properties, and built above active railroad tracks where minimal buildable land existed. The two towers form the gateway into the development both in the skyline and at grade level. With high-performance enclosures and curved corners, the pair expresses a soft, monolithic simplicity to form a dynamic presence in the urban skyline. One Manhattan West, with a curvature to the east, welcomes pedestrian arrivals from Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall, while Two Manhattan West orients north to Midtown, welcoming oncoming traffic arriving from uptown. At grade level, the buildings softly touch into the large public space, dissolving into the public realm to create a sense of permeability at the ground.
While the towers’ presence in the sky and at grade is rigorous and clearly defined, their most dramatic complexities lie underground. Both supertall towers stand on extremely challenging sites above active rail lines. Navigating this challenge required an intricate synthesis of design and engineering. Each tower is supported by a central core with sloping perimeter columns that reach available foundations around the trains. The structural solution is unique to each tower.
One Manhattan West’s central core is founded on bedrock. Due to below-grade train track constraints on the south, all perimeter columns slope at the base of the tower–levels 2 to 6–back into the concrete core that anchors the whole tower to terra firma. This approach not only creates a balanced structural system that leverages the most optimal use of the available foundation area but also creates a dramatic, column-free lobby at the base of the tower.
Manhattan West Development by SOM. Photograph by Dave Burk.
Manhattan West Development by SOM. Photograph by Dave Burk.
This lobby, enclosed in an all-glass storefront, appears to dissolve as the building meets the ground. This architectural feature creates the effect of a non-existing enclosure system that visually connects the street, public open space, and the office lobby—providing views from corner to corner and connecting public and private space into one. The structural core is clad in stone travertine, with horizontal, contiguous veining that evokes a sense of texture and appears carved from a singular, monolithic stone block–a symbol of strength. In the westernmost ends of the lobby, wooden walls complement the natural materiality of the travertine and feature a horizontal striation to match the veining.
Two Manhattan West is similarly supported by a central core–only half of which could touch down to solid ground. SOM aligned a series of sculpted mega-columns at the building’s perimeter with subgrade spaces between the tracks. Highly visible, these mega-columns express the strength of the tower’s structural system and announce the building’s complex structural solution. Reminiscent of the legs of a table, the structural core is surrounded by a carefully crafted eucalyptus wood core—an architectural flourish that expresses a softness to complement the rigor of both the cascading steel structure and the elegance of the curtain wall above. The integrated solution opens clear sightlines from the street to the plaza, evoking a sense of permeability between the private lobby and the outside public space.
Although the two towers’ structural systems diverge, they similarly create a permeable relationship between the private inside space and public outdoor spaces. Both towers exemplify the interdisciplinary thinking of an integrated, multidisciplinary design firm, where architectural design and structural engineering go hand in hand. While One Manhattan West opened in 2019, the recent completion of Two Manhattan West marks the final chapter of the development of Manhattan West. Together, the two towers announce the development’s civic identity.
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The original facilities became obsolete due to the passage of time, so an unprecedented land deal was entered into, developing the building on four acres in exchange for the remaining ten acres of campus land.
The project consists of an interaction with the urban landscape with green spaces designed by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture and an earthwork designed by Maya Lin.
The architects dedicated their concerns to ensuring that the signage and orientation of the building reflected the identity of the institution. Therefore, the graphic elements, both exterior and interior, are changed to convey a sense of movement, with each character designed to echo off the walls, as if moving through the space.
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center by SOM. Photograph by Dave Burk/SOM.
Description of project by SOM
With a distinctive facade design defined by solar-shading fins, this new building creates a vertical campus for the U.S. DOT’s transportation research and innovation center.
The best-kept secret in Cambridge
The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center was founded in 1970 to advance transportation innovation for the public good, and its new building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, furthers this critical mission. As the original facility grew outdated, the General Services Administration (GSA) entered an unprecedented land agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Investment Management Company, which developed the building on four acres in exchange for the remaining ten acres of campus land.
For decades, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Volpe Center had been colloquially known as the “best-kept secret in Cambridge,” a gated setting where cutting-edge research took place. For the new 410,000-square-foot building, SOM empowered the center to reveal itself, and its work, to the streetscape for the first time.
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center by SOM. Photograph by Dave Burk/SOM.
Innovation on display
The architecture of the new U.S. DOT Volpe Center puts the institution on display. Sited on four acres of the original campus, the headquarters engages the streetscape with green spaces by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture and an earthwork by Maya Lin comprising a series of undulating mounds. A three-story, transparent entrance faces Fifth Street and provides views inside. Along Binney Street to the north, six 14-foot-tall garage doors enable the street-facing lab spaces to host demonstrations.
Building a vertical campus
The new building brings the center’s operations under one roof for the first time, with laboratories, data centers, offices, and amenities that were once spread across several structures. The new center takes the form of two rectangular volumes, comprising a larger base for floors one through three followed by a setback above to serve the 1,300 staff members.
As a cutting edge science facility, the center encompassess a series of labs for testing, research, and data science. The human factors labs dedicate 90,000 square feet of the first level to vehicle testing and simulation prep. Amenities are aggregated at the base to foster a sense of community. A main staircase leads to a large conference area, training rooms, and a cafe.
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center by SOM. Photograph by Dave Burk/SOM.
Graphics strategy
SOM’s branding studio developed signage and wayfinding for the U.S. DOT Volpe Center that reflects the institution’s identity. A new typeface for the numbers and letters is applied both outside and indoors, to convey a sense of motion, with each character styled to echo across the walls, as if moving through space. Many of the numbers and department labels stretch horizontally, like a car or train whizzing by, while numbers in the stairwells stretch vertically, mirroring the direction of staff circulating inside.
Calibrating the facade for optimal performance
Targeting LEED Platinum, the new center is oriented to maximize daylighting, while the glass and aluminum facade is crafted in different arrangements to minimize glare.
The facades with the least surface area face the east and west, where sun exposure is strongest in the mornings and evenings. The eastern and western facades are clad in glass with vertical aluminum plates that stretch outward like the fins of an aircraft to block glare and solar radiation.
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center by SOM. Photograph by Dave Burk/SOM.
“We calibrated the building to make the most of sunlight, and that sensitivity to its context also carries outward in the way the US DOT Volpe Center interacts with the neighborhood.
We have empowered the US DOT Volpe Center to reveal itself and its work to the public.”
Chris Cooper, partner at SOM.
"The work of the US DOT Volpe Center fits perfectly with Kendall Square's business identity, and the building's configuration and interior palette are key to making it a welcoming place.
What we have created is a vertical community, one that brings a new level of well-being to the staff of the US DOT Volpe Center.”
Joseph Ruocco, director of SOM.
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The preservation works of the modernist icon capture the original aesthetic through a combination of material science and careful craftsmanship
At the time of its completion, Reyner Banham said of the building “It gave architectural expression to an age just as the age was being born.” Since then, the landmark has been under the care of SOM for over 70 years, a level of stewardship that is rare in the architectural profession.
The tower’s third floor and 1,400 square-meter (15,000 square-foot) of terraces have been restored and transformed into The Lever Club, an indoor-outdoor hospitality suite with interiors designed by Marmol Radziner and services managed by Sant Ambroeus Hospitality Group.
Lever House renovation and restoration by SOM. Photograph by Lucas Blair Simpson, image courtesy of SOM.
Lever House renovation and restoration by SOM. Photograph by Lucas Blair Simpson, image courtesy of SOM.
The plaza area has been replaced by a durable cast-in-place concrete matching the design of Lever House’s original exterior paving; the water-damaged ceiling has been replaced with new higher performing plaster; and throughout the site, the original stainless steel-clad columns have been refinished, alongside the champlain black marble. In collaboration with TM Light, energy-efficient, long-lasting LED lights have replaced the original lighting to maintain the aperture and look throughout.
Throughout the lobby and interior, SOM implemented a plethora of refined updates to transform the arrival experience. The original terrazzo flooring has been repaired and refinished to its original sheen; a glass mosaic tile wall in the elevator vestibule has been cleaned and repaired, while a luminous ceiling above features an upgraded, diffused lighting system to improve brightness and energy efficiency. SOM also located the original stone quarry sources for the building, enabling the design team to extend the original finishes to the elevator cab interiors and a new tenant cellar entrance. The lobby, furnished by Marmol Radziner, also features sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly that extend to the open ground-floor plaza.
The interventions continue to the higher floors, most notably with new landscaping. Acclaimed landscape architecture firm Reed Hildebrand curated a new landscape program across the property. From the plaza and lobby-level planter to the third-floor terrace, Lever House’s landscaping—most of which has changed over the years—now visually unites with a birch tree canopy and understory of native plantings throughout. At the perimeter of the terrace, the landscaping now features new shrubs, flowers, and perennials to frame views of Park Avenue.
Lever House renovation and restoration by SOM. Photograph by Lucas Blair Simpson, image courtesy of SOM.
A series of sweeping changes to the mechanical systems contributes to new LEED Gold and WELL Platinum certification targets. SOM, in collaboration with Cosentini Associates, equipped the building with a modern, dedicated outdoor air system, new chillers, HEPA filters, and an automated building management system. This new mechanical equipment, along with a 500-kilowatt generator, improved security systems, and modernized elevators, will maintain the landmark’s place as a Class A office space for decades to come.
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The terminal has been built in order to replace the existing terminals, built in 1972. With the new construction of the terminal, it has been possible to renew the design and increase passenger capacity.
The I-shaped building encompasses two levels: the upper for departing passengers and the lower for arrivals, each with its own access road. Check-in and security occupy the upper level just inside the entrance, and baggage claim, customs, and an outdoor public garden comprise the lower level. Beyond security, two parallel concourses, with retail at the centre, are linked by a pedestrian passage that provides sweeping views of the airfield.
Kansas City International Airport’s New Terminal by SOM. Photograph by Lucas Blair Simpson.
Description of project by SOM
The redevelopment of Kansas City International Airport (KCI) is the largest single infrastructure project in the history of Kansas City. Built to replace the existing, overcrowded terminals originally built in 1972—with a single, highly sustainable 1.1-million-square-foot building, the project significantly increases passenger capacity, with a design deeply informed by residents throughout the city. The new terminal reimagines the passenger experience—embodying the region's rich culture and elevating the airport into a place that is inclusive and accessible to all.
An intuitive layout
The new terminal—designed, planned, and engineered by SOM, with design-builder Clark | Weitz | Clarkson (CWC)—brings KCI far into the future. It brings all airline operations under one roof, with a 6,000-space parking garage just steps away, to create a seamless journey for arrivals and departures alike. The airport, originally built as a series of three smaller terminals for 3.8 million annual passengers, is now capable of serving more than 16 million travellers per year. The new terminal's 39 gates are used for domestic and international travel, and the layout enables the facility to expand by another 11 gates in the future.
The I-shaped building encompasses two levels: the upper for departing passengers and the lower for arrivals, each with its own access road and curb. Check-in and security occupy the upper level just inside the entrance, and baggage claim, customs, and an outdoor public garden comprise the lower level. Beyond security, two parallel concourses with retail at the centre are linked by a pedestrian passage that provides sweeping views of the airfield. All post-security spaces are on the same level—a design move that creates an easier journey for all passengers.
Kansas City International Airport’s New Terminal by SOM. Photograph by Lucas Blair Simpson.
Exceptional inclusivity and accessibility
Much of the decision-making behind the design draws inspiration from the values of Kansas City. Beginning in 2017, SOM’s team of architects, planners, and structural engineers, alongside Edgemoor, CWC, and Kansas City Aviation Department (KCAD) representatives, fanned out across six city council districts and into neighbours in Kansas, meeting thousands of people in community centres, police stations, and churches. Through dozens of meetings, the aspirations for the terminal became clear—the building had to convey a sense of place, provide comfort and convenience for passengers, and be welcoming to all. This mandate for inclusion was strengthened when, later that year, the mayor and city council issued a resolution calling for the terminal to be “the most accessible in the world.”
Accessibility became the guiding principle for the design. All signage uses large fonts. The curbs at the access roads are cut wide for wheelchair van access. Every gate desk, check-in position, and info desk is set to a wheelchair-accessible height. Every restroom block has a dedicated nursing room, a family restroom, and a private space for changing clothes, as well as stalls that surpass the required dimensions. Extending this spirit of inclusion, the design team also created two large All-Gender restrooms, with floor-to-ceiling partitions for privacy, as well as motorized changing tables and animal relief areas.
A series of amenities enhance the accessibility of the terminal to broad segments of the public. A sensory room, divided into private play spaces, offers solace to children with disabilities and their families as they prepare to board or rest after a long journey. A “quiet room,” developed in collaboration with a local dementia advocacy group, accommodates prayer and meditation and gives people with dementia a relaxing place to stay before departing. The Kansas City Air Travel Experience simulator, accessible to the public by appointment, provides passengers who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with air travel the chance to “test run” in the days before a trip by entering a full-size mock-up of an aircraft cabin—complete with seats, the bulkhead, and a restroom.
An inspiring entry, an inviting interior
The aesthetic of the terminal itself plays a major role in creating a welcoming setting. Departing travellers are greeted by a grand and transparent entrance of glass and copper-coloured aluminium. Overhead, a long-span roof provides a generous, 35-foot-long overhang covering the sidewalk and departures curb, and continues inside to create a smooth visual transition from the exterior to the column-free interior. The roof is complemented by a natural hemlock ceiling and supported by a single span of Y-columns—uniting the warmth of the natural material with the practicality of the steel structure.
SOM selected natural materials for much of the interiors—the timber ceilings continue throughout the building, and marble terrazzo covers the floors. Inside the Check-In Hall, a massive, 732-foot-long wall is clad in local Missouri limestone, which was excavated from the same quarry used for the Missouri State Capitol, Union Station, and civic buildings throughout Kansas City. This wall serves as the backdrop to a kinetic sculpture—titled, “The Air Up There,” and designed by Missouri-born artist Nick Cave—that is made of thousands of colourful wind spinners and conveys the wonder of travel. A series of colourful mosaics cut and preserved from the site’s previous terminal have been placed throughout the floors of the concourses, maintaining the memory of the original building.
Kansas City International Airport’s New Terminal by SOM. Photograph by Lucas Blair Simpson.
Embodying the city’s identity
The kinetic sculpture is the first of a total of 27 works of art spread throughout the terminal. The piece is part of a comprehensive public art program, in which one per cent of the entire project budget—$5.6 million—was dedicated to commissioning local and international artists. Soo Sunny Park, Leo Villareal, Willie Cole, and a host of other artists contributed to the terminal’s sense of place in a variety of ways—from honouring Kansas City’s moniker as the “City of Fountains” to evoking its critical contribution to the history of jazz.
Integrating the arrivals experience with nature
Arriving travellers walk through the concourses to the escalators that lead down to the baggage claim area. Like the upper floor, these spaces are finished in terrazzo underfoot and Douglas fir wood overhead. Besides the baggage claim, a series of glass doors open onto the public garden—bringing natural light inside while providing travellers with the kind of outdoor space that is rarely found in airports. Here, the organization of seating and trees mimics the circular form of KCI’s original terminals and adds one more fountain to a city well known for its ornamental water features.
An efficient structure
The structural design of the terminal exemplifies what an integrated multidisciplinary design firm can accomplish. Throughout much of the building, the architecture and engineering are one and the same, with exposed structural steel columns and beams supporting the long-span roof. The departures curb and check-in hall together form the building’s signature space, and the structure is a significant part of the experience and aesthetic. The Y-columns support a 100-foot-long clear span, the cantilever overhanging the road, and built-up steel box girders spaced 30 feet apart across the ceiling. Together, these elements exhibit a robust appearance that complements the welcoming nature of the terminal.
The spacing of the columns throughout the terminal was determined by programmatic requirements. Organized in a grid that runs throughout much of the building, most of the columns are spaced 30 feet apart—a strategy that enabled sustainable, modular construction, while also giving the terminal the ability to easily adapt the terminal as the needs of travellers change over time. The terminal building itself actually comprises 14 independent structures, each separated by expansion joints and combined into one building. There are variations among each piece—the structures range from steel braced frames and moment frames to a reinforced concrete beam and slab system with shear walls on the lower level. SOM, working closely with the design-build team, designed each structure with three main goals: to minimize material use, speed up construction, and reduce costs.
Kansas City International Airport’s New Terminal by SOM. Photograph by Lucas Blair Simpson.
A women-led team
Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, the developer of the terminal, and the city endeavoured to exceed industry standards in creating a design and construction team headlined by women-owned businesses. A total of 54 women-owned businesses have worked on this project, and the number of women on the construction team tripled the industry average for participation, at 8 per cent. SOM’s team, from project management, to design, and structural engineering, has been led by women throughout the New York and Washington, D.C. studios.
Sustainability
Kansas City International Airport is the first and largest LEED v4 GOLD BD+C: NC terminal/concourse project in the U.S. Midwest, and just the second in the entire United States. The building also has goals in place to run on renewable energy in the future. It runs entirely on electricity, and a solar farm is planned for construction to convert all airport operations to green energy. Natural lighting illuminates the building by day. The parking garage, which was designed by BNIM, provides electric vehicle charging. Many of the materials are sourced locally, and the wood finishes are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as products obtained from responsibly managed forests.
SOM’s master plan includes a comprehensive conservation plan, which maintains a series of native trees and grasses from KCI’s original construction. With this mix of preservation, along with a major emphasis on warmth and PG 2 /3 inclusion, the terminal is one of the most striking new places in Kansas City—a civic destination that prepares the midwestern city for the long run.
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SOM was also involved in the replacement of the building’s glass curtain wall in 2001.
Lever House was one of 50 buildings in the world to receive a twenty-five year award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
The 21-story, 24,000-square-meter building was purpose-built as the headquarters for Lever Brothers soap company and has remained a shining example of early International Style architecture since its opening
Many of the building’s original details will be restored, and mechanical systems will be updated according to the highest wellness and sustainability standards. Renovations are expected to be finished in early 2023.
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The structure office tower was designed with an external steel exoskeleton, which is also a partially solar-shading element, (According to the studio, it reduces solar heat gain by an estimated 34 per cent), responding to the region’s tropical climate through a series of biophilic and sustainable design solutions.
The tower’s façade is defined by an external diagrid, which acts as both the building’s structure and solar shading element. At its base, the diagrid widens to create framed openings and views of the surrounding park and nearby South China Sea.
The design draws upon principles from Feng Shui, in which water and wealth are intrinsically linked. The lobby is encircled by a reflecting pool and features a wall of water adjacent to the main entrance. A 15 meter high “rain curtain”, in which droplets of water cascade down small translucent filaments, lines the lobby’s glass walls. These water features provide an evaporative cooling effect for the entire building.
Along with water, the elements of earth and air feature prominently throughout the building. A natural ventilation system brings fresh air into common areas and office spaces.
At the top of the building, operable walls and an outdoor deck blur the division between indoor and outdoor spaces.
Rural Commercial Bank by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Photograph by Seth Powers
Project description by SOM
Building on SOM’s tradition of innovative engineering, the design for a bank’s new headquarters incorporates a distinctive external diagrid that significantly reduces solar gain. Inside, responsive solar shading technology and natural airflow enhance staff wellbeing.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has completed a 158-meter-tall, 33-story tower, located on the edge of a public park at the center of one of Shenzhen’s key business districts, that responds to the region’s tropical climate through a series of biophilic and sustainable design solutions. The firm was commissioned by Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank in 2012 to design a new headquarters that balances the bank’s vision for the future alongside its history as a rural credit union.
The tower’s facade is defined by an external diagrid, which serves as both the building’s structure as well as an important solar shading element. At its base, the diagrid widens to create framed openings and views to the surrounding park and Qianhai Bay, a short walk from the building.
“We’re always exploring opportunities to synthesize inventive engineering solutions with architectural design. The Rural Commercial Bank Headquarters gave us the chance to incorporate a diagrid—similar to an exoskeleton—that pulls the structure to the exterior and effectively suspends the tower within to create column-free workspaces,” explains Scott Duncan, SOM Design Partner.
Drawing upon principles from feng shui, in which water and wealth are intrinsically linked, the lobby is encircled by a reflecting pool and features a rippling wall of water adjacent to the main entrance. A 15 meter high “rain curtain,” with droplets of water that cascade down small translucent filaments, lines the lobby’s ultra transparent glass walls. On hot summer days, these water features provide an evaporative cooling effect for the entire building. Above, suspended lighting fixtures mimic droplets of rain, and the lobby’s marble walls shift from a textured to honed finish to evoke water’s effect on stone.
Three essential elements—earth, water and air—figure prominently in the building features, from the multistory rain curtain in the main lobby, to the striated marble cladding the tower’s elevator core, and to the natural ventilation system that brings fresh air into common areas and office spaces. Reflecting pools, grey granite paving and seating areas, and arrays of trees and ground cover define the main entrance spaces and small gardens at the base of the tower. This tactile experience at ground level transitions and becomes more atmospheric as one progresses up the tower to the open floor plans and “floating” diagrid above. At the crown of the tower, operable walls and an outdoor deck blur distinctions between indoor and outdoor spaces.
Two vertical atria span the height of the tower. On each floor, employees can use louvers to open and close vents, accessing fresh air from the atria. This allows the building to “breathe” when Shenzhen’s climate is pleasant, filling the entire building with fresh air so tenants can enjoy the same air inside as they do outside. By functioning like airways in a body and cycling fresh air throughout the building, these features generate significant savings in environmental and energy efficiency. This system prioritizes tenant comfort and wellbeing to a degree typically unheard of in office environments. Interior spaces are defined by a minimal glass perimeter wall and a daylight-responsive shading system. A communicating stairway runs the height of the tower, fostering connectivity and collaboration among coworkers.
The tower is LEED Platinum and is targeting China Green Star certification.
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