Inside Foster + Partners’ new JPMorganChase (JPMC) headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in Manhattan, eight expansive trading floors articulate the pace, precision, and collaboration of finance in the digital era. Situated above the expansive lobby, 4,000 traders are accommodated across the 500,000-square-foot workspace designed by SOM to unfold in a series of two-story suites. “Our goal was to create a trading environment that supports both the focus and collaboration inherent in the work,” says SOM interior design principal Ece Calguner Erzan. “By creating suites with shared amenities and integrating their layout within the structural logic of the tower, we were able to design spaces that are both highly functional and deeply connected to the building’s overall identity.”
Business is anchored around a double-height atrium that houses work cafes, interconnecting stairs, and central conferencing. The ”vertical neighborhoods” feature an open floorplan to balance the energy of trading areas with space designated for privacy and focus. Smaller meeting rooms, huddle rooms, and larger conference rooms facilitate individual work and collaboration beside open workspaces equipped with custom sit-stand desks that address ergonomics and sightline challenges with a cantilevered form. Natural materials, textures, and live plants imbue warmth across the sprawling interior, where dual boardrooms installed above cafes overlook trading floors as well as Park Avenue. Ceilings integrated with circadian lighting soften interiors with simulated daylighting along with finely tuned acoustics.
