Lord Norman Foster sits for a portrait on the 42nd floor of JPMorgan’s current headquarters. Lord Foster is the architect for the new 60-story building the bank is building. He describes the new structure as a “breathing building” because of the greater focus on air circulation.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR
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Lord Norman Foster sits for a portrait on the 42nd floor of JPMorgan’s current headquarters. Lord Foster is the architect for the new 60-story building the bank is building. He describes the new structure as a “breathing building” because of the greater focus on air circulation.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR
What will the office of the future look like?
That’s a question that seems contentious to many workers in 2023, when work-from-home arrangements have become commonplace — but not for Wall Street.
Financial firms are actively trying to attract employees back to the office.
And for big banks JPMorgan Chase and BNP Paribas, the end of the pandemic is an opportunity to rethink the role of the workplace.
JPMorgan, the largest of the big banks, is planning to build a new headquarters in Manhattan before COVID-19 hits.
Meanwhile, BNP Paribas, which has its headquarters in France, is in the process of renegotiating the lease of its own regional headquarters in Manhattan, as New York City closes.
A mockup of JPMorgan’s futuristic office is displayed on the conference table of the bank’s current building in New York on October 25, 2022.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR
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In the end, BNP Paribas decided to downsize its real estate operations in a 54-story building that it shares with other companies. In July 2020, it signed a new 20-year deal for less space — six stories in total, and worked with architecture firm Gensler for a large-scale redesign.
Both finance companies have incorporated the lessons they learned during the pandemic into their designs, as they have rethought what the office means to their employees.
Here are three of the ways they are envisioning the workplace of the future.
Clean air
During the pandemic, people began to pay more attention to air circulation in confined spaces and it became a more important element in commercial architecture.
Lord Norman Foster, who designed JPMorgan’s new headquarters on Park Avenue, calls it “a building that breathes”.
When completed in 2025, the amount of fresh air circulating through the 60-story building will be twice as much as New York City building codes require.
“There is a greater awareness, sensitivity and acceptance of the importance of air,” said Foster, who worked with a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health on his design. fresh.
A model of the skyline surrounding JPMorgan’s future offices is displayed on the conference table of the bank’s current building in New York on October 25, 2022.
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The tower, which can accommodate more than 14,000 workers, will also have a state-of-the-art air filtration system, and the bank says it will be able to monitor air quality continuously.
Not only that, in the spacious, cramped rooms where bankers trade stocks, bonds and other assets, each desk will have its own temperature control system and the air will pressurized under the floor. That’s for both health reasons as well as energy efficiency.
Meanwhile, BNP Paribas has upgraded its heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. It has installed new filters that are capable of capturing most contaminants as small as 0.3 microns, very tiny indeed, smaller than most bacteria.
Flexible workspace
The beating heart of any major bank is its trading activity. JPMorgan buys and sells billions of dollars in stocks, bonds, and other assets every day.
At the new headquarters, the exchanges will be huge — big enough to hold 550 employees, and JPMorgan and its design team have reimagined these spaces.
According to David Arena, the bank’s global head of real estate, adaptability is crucial.
“If you’re trying to predict the future, it’s a fool’s job,” he said. “So how can you future-proof a space? You make it flexible.”
David Arena, JPMorgan’s global head of real estate, stands over a portrait on the 6th floor of the construction site of JPMorgan Chase’s new futuristic building in New York on October 25, 2022.
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Flexibility becomes even more important during a pandemic, and these floors are designed to be easily changed. Arena explains that even walls can be moved.
“When the nature of the transaction changes, and it can change, or when the nature of the office above us changes, and it can, it is simply a matter of rearranging the furniture,” he said. “And that includes offices, walls, and tables and chairs.”
Arena adds that it is possible to completely redesign an entire floor in one weekend.
Meanwhile, BNP Paribas has added more flexibility to its new workplace. Many employees no longer have their own offices or assigned desks. Instead, there are “flexible desks” and rooms that they can reserve for meetings.
Perks, and of course, food
Like many companies, JPMorgan wants to make the office attractive again, and its new headquarters has a lot of perks.
There will be yoga and cycling studios, on-site medical care, and a large conference center.
BNP Paribas doesn’t have an on-site gym, but the company has added bike storage and opened a new outdoor terrace for employees.
“The reality is, if you’re happier at work, if you have a variety of activities that you can expand into the entertainment element of the day,” said Foster, JPMorgan’s architect. , then you will be more productive.” new headquarters.
And then there’s the food.
JPMorgan is working with restaurateur Danny Meyer, who started Shake Shack, to build its cafe, which it describes as a “big, modern dining room.” The arena became excited by the wide pantry spread throughout the building.
“It’s no secret, people love to eat,” he said. “I’m Italian. We do everything around the dinner table. And so, basically, we have the equivalent here.”
Meanwhile, for BNP Paribas, the goal is to create a “home away from home” for more than 2,000 workers working in New York.
For employees who have spent months, and in some cases years, working in empty bedrooms and over dining tables, that phrase has taken on a new meaning.
BNP’s renovated offices also feature pantries and, adjacent to one of the largest trading floors, feature a full-service coffee bar. Bankers can even use an app to order cappuccinos and lattes.
