GM Building’s Amenity Center Mixes the Modern and the Midcentury – Commercial Observer

When toy store FAO Schwarz departed the General Motors Building for Rockefeller Center, landlord Boston Properties suddenly found itself with vacant space on the second floor. Instead of renting the space to another store, Boston — now BXP — decided to ask tenants of the 50-story, 1.7 million-square-foot tower what they would like to see there.

Naturally, building workers wanted a gym, locker rooms with showers, conference rooms, lounge areas and a grab-and-go coffee option. BXP tapped Fogarty Finger to design the space at the height of the pandemic, and construction kicked off in 2021. What is now a 35,000-square-foot amenity center incorporates a lot of muted tones and grays, but also tries to pay homage to the GM Building’s midcentury heritage. 

“We were very inspired by the building itself — it’s this classic 1960s international-style building,” said Garrett Rock, an associate director at Fogarty Finger. “We wanted the amenity to have a similar color palette to the lobby,” which is a grand, double-height space featuring white marble.

Just off the elevator is the grab-and-go coffee bar with pastries and sandwiches. It includes a gray terrazzo bar, plants stuffed into off-white vases, backlit display shelves, and a seating area with leather benches and low, curved walnut coffee tables. 

Then there’s a larger lounge area with a bar, which is outfitted with midcentury furniture — a dark green velvet couch, orange accent chairs, and circular dark blue upholstered armchairs. The bar, which is again gray terrazzo, can be converted to a cocktail bar for after-work happy hours. There are also smaller meeting rooms on the other side that can be kept as single, open rooms or converted into separate meeting rooms using retractable walls that drop down from the ceiling. Light woods, tan leather and jewel tone upholstery abound, along with low side tables. The meeting space also has a separate catering kitchen for events. 

The other side of the amenity center is the gym, featuring two large, separate locker rooms with 13 showers for each gender, rows of blond wood lockers, and gently lit bar areas with low white seats. The shower areas also have an accent wall, a full wall of dramatic white and purple veined marble. There’s also a large open workout area with cardio equipment and weights, a separate general purpose fitness classroom, a dedicated cycling studio, and two physical therapy treatment rooms. 

Rebecca Baird-Remba can be reached at rbairdremba@commercialobserver.com.