New York Times: A Greener, More Healthful Place to Work

Richard Schiffman – The New York Times

Entering the offices of CookFox architects in Manhattan, you can almost leave the city behind.

The horseshoe-shaped work pods are plant-fringed havens, warmly lit by the late afternoon light. Terraces on three sides of the office are planted with native trees, vines and grasses and replete with bee apiaries that are tended by the employees, who are encouraged to work outdoors in season. This unusual Midtown workplace, at 250 West 57th Street, was designed to be a showcase for a new kind of green building inspired by what architects call “biophilic design.” The term, from the Greek for “love of living things,” was popularized by the Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, who argues that humans are hard-wired by our evolutionary biology to be emotionally attracted to the natural world. Advocates of biophilic design say that to be called green, a building needs to do more than just use energy efficiently and have a minimal carbon footprint. Rather, it needs to be a health-promoting place for the people who live and work there.

Read more in the full article, A Greener, More Healthful Place to Work, here.