Climate Initiatives’s NYC Office Shines With Sustainable Design

Climate Initiatives, an investment and philanthropic venture, was established nearly a decade ago. For several years, it operated out of a rented, furnished office in New York. But by 2022, with the company expanding and gaining traction in its quest to help turn the tide on climate change by incubating start-ups and funding projects that advance global decarbonization, the cofounders felt the firm should have a place of its own. 

Among the list of requirements was a workplace flexible enough to accommodate further growth, particularly tricky to determine considering the changing work patterns resulting from the pandemic and not knowing how many people might be on the premises on any given day; an environment that’s comfortable and sophisticated, with a residential feel; and, above all, a space that reflects the Climate Initiatives mission. That meant everything, from finishes to furniture, had to be “filtered through the lens of sustainability and carbon footprint,” recalls Aaron Schiller, founder and principal of Schiller Projects, the architecture firm tapped for the job. His studio is well-versed in designing with materials and processes low in greenhouse-gas emissions, recently renovating a 19th-century Brooklyn carriage house utilizing mass-timber construction.

Consider the partitions that divide the 6,000-square-foot floor Climate Initiatives leased in a midtown Manhattan building. Instead of being composed of standard drywall, they’re formed from vertical slats of Douglas fir, bringing a warm, natural material to the fore. The slats, made of Forest Stewardship Council–certified wood, demarcate areas while also enabling sunlight to penetrate the all-hands area at the center of the plan, along with inspiring glimpses of Central Park to the north and the Empire State Building to the south. “The ‘wood wall’ was conceived as a device that would never block but filter, a tool to allow and organize focus or collaboration through light and connection,” Schiller explains. Where acoustics and privacy are concerns, panes of glass have been added over the slats. Should the firm relocate, the wood components can be disassembled and repurposed, minimizing waste. “It’s like an erector set,” Schiller Projects partner Colin Cleland adds. “Nothing is fixed in place.” 

On the perimeter of the floor are the founders’ and principals’ offices along with myriad flexible spaces, each fronted with glass so everyone has access to light and views. There are two large conference rooms as well as a series of smaller meeting rooms, about 10 by 15 feet, each furnished with a desk and chair as well as a separate table with chairs, to function either as conference spaces or private offices, depending on employee needs. 

Aesthetics were as important as functionality. The cofounders “shared a concern about offices designed by men for men,” Schiller says, adding that they requested theirs be inviting and “not too overtly masculine.” So, here, textured wallcoverings add color and tactility to select expanses. Rather than the usual wall-to-wall carpet, there are abstractly patterned wool and cotton rugs enlivening the polished-concrete flooring. That switches to planks of FSC–certified white oak in the all-hands, where more than a dozen Isamu Noguchi paper lanterns in various sizes and shapes animate the ceiling-scape. Other accent lighting is from local makers, such as Fort Standard in Brooklyn and Stickbulb, a Certified B Corporation in Queens that incorporates wood salvaged from decommissioned New York City water towers in its LED-lit fixtures. Keepsake furniture pieces by such mid-century and current masters as Jean Prouvé, Antonio Citterio, and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have rounded, organic silhouettes. Paintings from the clients’ collection are mounted in openings in the slatted walls, each niche sized to accommodate a specific artwork; other recesses are fitted with display shelves. “Where we coincided with immovable moments, like building columns, we made those barriers disappear by giving depth to the partition system, hanging art within it or making it interactive through the deployment of books and objects that relate to the clients’ work,” Schiller says. 

The entry lounge at one end of the elevator lobby is particularly residential in character. In other workplaces, this is where you’d find a reception desk. But this space—with its curvilinear sofa and generous armchairs upholstered in sage-green and pale-pink velvet, respectively, anchored by a plush rug, its vibrant pattern suggesting rare gems or paving stones—can serve as a waiting area for visitors, a breakout space for events held in the nearby conference rooms, or a comfy place for staffers to work on their laptops or phones. 

One measure of the project’s success is how well the office has accommodated the firm’s evolution. At the start of the process, the company had about a dozen employees; now there’s more than double that. There was a name change as well, starting out as something more abstract. So the company recently adopted the more straightforward Climate Initiatives to make clear, as this office surely does, what it’s all about. 

Discover Climate Initiatives’s Sustainable Oasis

SCHILLER PROJECTS: ALBERTO RODRIGUEZ; ALISON HOCHMAN. STAMP ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. LIGHTING WORKSHOP: LIGHTING DESIGNER. ROBERT DERECTOR ASSOCIATES: MEP. MILLER BLAKER: MILLWORK. TKO: PROJECT MANAGER. STRUCTURE TONE: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

FROM FRONT NOGUCHI SHOP: PENDANT FIXTURES (ALL-HANDS). GUBI: TASK CHAIRS. DESIGN PUBLIC: STOOLS (ALL-HANDS, NOOK). FLOR: CARPET TILE (HALL). NANIMARQUINA: RUG (LOUNGE). DUNE: SOFA. DWR: ARMCHAIRS (LOUNGE), SWIVEL CHAIR (LOBBY). VITRA: COFFEE TABLES (LOUNGE, ALL-HANDS), CLUB CHAIRS (ALL-HANDS), CHAIRS (MEETING ROOMS), DESKS (OPEN OFFICE). CAESARSTONE: TABLE- TOP (ALL-HANDS). HUMANSCALE: TASK CHAIR (PRINCIPAL OFFICE). TUOHY FURNITURE: CUSTOM DESKS (OFFICES), ROUND TABLES (MEETING ROOMS). SOFTLINE: DRUM TABLE (LOBBY). CORIAN: TABLETOP (CONFERENCE ROOM). TSAR CARPETS: RUG. KEILHAUER: CHAIRS (CONFERENCE ROOM, FOUNDER OFFICE, OPEN OFFICE). RBW: SCONCE (NOOK). NORDIC KNOTS: GRAY RUG (FOUNDER OFFICE). FORT STANDARD: PENDANT FIXTURE. NEINKAMPER: TABLE. MAHARAM: GREEN RUG (FOUNDER OFFICE), WALLCOVERING. THROUGHOUT PORCELANOSA: FLOOR PLANKS. TEKNION: OFFICE FRONTS. BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT.