NoVo Foundation Headquarters.
Brooklyn, NY
LEED Silver Certification
The landscape design for the new headquarters of this global organization was guided by one of its central tenets, to “live in balance with one another, and the ecosystems that sustain us”. By re-using and re-purposing many parts of the former YMCA trade school building and site, and the addition of our own green initiatives, we created a sustainable design that achieves LEED Silver certification.
The building renovation incorporates several new landscapes spaces including the facade and streetscape, the entrance corridor, a sunken garden, a viewing garden, and two rooftop terraces. In all of these spaces, connections between the interior and exterior spaces create smooth transitions and connections between building and landscape. There were many opportunities to bring nature into the building – a skylight in the roof terrace that illuminates a custom green wall in the library, interior plantings throughout the rooms, floor to ceiling glass doors and windows that create visual and physical access to the gardens and the extension of paving from outside to inside.
We created spaces that encourage relaxation, peacefulness, and play and that encourage a positive relationship with our environment. Creating communal and contemplative spaces supports another of the NoVo foundation’s principles, to “encourage social and emotional learning”. There are small spaces that protect, such as a grotto, and more open social spaces, such as a cantilevered amphitheater, commissioned artworks, yoga swings, and a native rooftop meadow. The use of native and adaptive plantings and medicinal plants also support the client’s interest in promoting ecological and human health.
As a Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE), JPLA was proud to create this landscape for a client who works to advance and support the work of women throughout the world.
CLIENT: NoVo Foundation
COLLABORATORS: Ryall Porter Sheridan Architects