CIVILIVN Creates Flexible Work Space for NYC Non-Profit Exalt

New York City’s Exalt non-profit offers educational engagement for youths involved in the criminal justice system, helping to break up the school-to-prison pipeline. Flexible work environments help further this important mission, which is why they asked CIVILIVN to transform an overstuffed space in a 1901 lower Manhattan office tower into a new headquarters filled with light and possibilities.

“It’s a synthesis of the existing building and the programmatic needs of the clients,” says CIVILIVN principal Nicko Elliot. “We had three main features we looked to implement: creating one big room that everyone could participate in, offering layers of transference to provide more visual access to the harbor, and generating a greater sense of connectivity inside the space.”

The result is 4,000 square feet that can transform from office to classroom to library to communal space, with full-height partitions of perforated metal serving as screens for zones dedicated to staff, a pantry, and printing and IT rooms. “We aimed to create something professional and youthful without being pandering,” Elliot says. It’s a mission achieved so that Exalt could keep realizing its own.



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