Engineering News Record speaks to Graham Clegg on the transformation of 1155 AoA

It’s the same 790,000-sq-ft office tower on Sixth Avenue between 44th and 45th streets in Manhattan built in 1984. But a multistage $130-million upgrade, and ongoing fit-outs, are converting 1155 Avenue of the Americas into a stylish property—with an upsized lobby, recast floor-to-ceiling glass in its chamfered corners, updated infrastructure and an impressive space redesign that now places its highest-dollar leases in previously unused areas.

What had been a hulking 41-floor black obelisk with a polished granite exterior and tinted punched windows now radiates a modern and light look—thanks in large part to cosmetic yet strategic changes, operational system upgrades and a reallocation of usable floor area ratio. 

The moves underscore a practical approach by the Durst Organization—the original developer, current building owner and renovation supervisor—to invest in upgrades to meet tenant expectations. “We went from 53% occupancy in 2019 to 93% leased today,” says Jonathan “Jody” Durst, president of the family-owned developer and real estate owner, which signed on two major tenants in recent months.

The project got its start in 2016 when the building’s anchor tenant—a law firm with space there since it opened—made plans to move, Durst says. “We saw an opportunity to invest in the building, to reposition and modernize the tower,” he says.

Achieving a fresh look for a building without changing its core exterior and total floor area ratio was a challenge, says Graham Clegg, partner at Studios Architecture, the project’s design architect.

“It was a complicated puzzle, how to renovate the entire building as it was, to have a true transformation even though it wasn’t much more than 30 years old,” he says.

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