FXFowle Is Leaving Manhattan For The Brooklyn Office Tower It's Designing

Architecture firm FXFowle will be moving offices into a tower of its own design.

FXFowle is the architect of record for One Willoughby Square, a 36-story Downtown Brooklyn office building being developed by JEMB Realty. The company will take 40K SF on the seventh through ninth floors as the official anchor tenant.

The second through sixth floors of the building will be a public school, a result of the NYC School Construction Authority selling the original land to JEMB in exchange for its construction, after which JEMB bought surrounding parcels for the side-core tower. The office floors in that side core will be set back, which will give FXFowle the school's roof as a large patio for outdoor events, relaxation and a testing ground for future green roof designs.

FXFowle retained Andrew Weiss of Signature Partners to represent the firm for the 15-year-lease, first reported by the New York Post, while JEMB represented itself. JLL will be enlisted to market the rest of the office space in the building, which is due to be completed in 2021. According to JEMB, it is the first ground-up office tower in Brooklyn for decades. 

“Many of the project’s team members are Brooklyn-based, and once we became involved with JEMB and One Willoughby Square, it felt like the perfect fit," FXFowle Managing Director Guy Geier said in a release. "While designing the building, we were able to imagine what we would look for as a tenant and created a building that has a sense of creativity and flexibility. We then had the epiphany that we wanted to be in this building, since it will perfectly reflect our company culture.”

FXFowle has also designed notable Manhattan buildings 3 Hudson Blvd., 11 Times Square and the New York Times Building.