Large firm thinks small too

Real Estate Weekly, April 21, 1993 by Therese Fitzgerald

One of the giants in the interiors construction field is also a specialist in small- and medium-sized projects.

In addition to building the inside of the 1 million-square- foot federal office building at Foley Square, current assignments of Tishman Interiors and Tishman Technologies, divisions of Tishman Construction Corporation, include 10,000-square-foot medical offices, MRI suites and an 18,100-square-foot showroom for Osh Kosh B' Gosh in the Empire State Building.

"It's hard to get owners to understand that we know how to handle the smaller jobs," said Rob Blackman, executive vicepresident, Tishman Interiors. "They think we're going to overpower their job from the standpoint of how many people we can get involved in the job. "

Tishman recently built out a 5,000-square-foot space for Asiana Airlines in four weeks. The plan included installing new air-conditioning system and glass doors.

Clients with smaller projects, said Vincent Piscopo, senior vice president, Tishman Interiors, benefit from Tishman's multi-disciplinary staff, its buying power and its contacts with contractors and designers.

Piscopo, who is overseeing several small- and medium-sized projects, said these assignments may be more intensive because the client requires more detailed reporting and attention.

"For an 1,800-square-foot space, there's no bank loan, "he said. "It's their money." money.'

There is a misconleption about "bigness" when people talk about Tishman, said Blackman, that leads people to believe they won't get the personalized attention. But every one of our projects has a project executive and project manager who have contact with the client on a daily basis.' With a wide range of focuses, Tishman Interiors/technologies' other ongoing assigrunents include trading floors for Chemical Bank in midtown Manhattan, the building of the new 240,000-squarefoot IRS space at 1133 Avenue of the Americas in New York, the renovation and expansion of Manhattan's Jewish Museum, 90,000 square feet for Bankers Trust at the Bankers Trust Bu ild ing, 2 80 Park, 80,000 square feet for New York Telephone and Arnold & Porter's new

law offices in Washington, DC.

50 Years of Interiors

Since the late 40's, Tishman has man-

aged the construction and renovation of some 60 millioii square feet of interior fit-outs. The first project was 445 Park Avenue, Tishman Construction's first high-riseofficebasebuilding. Sincethen interiors work has included hotels, hospitals, residential, retail, restaurants, concert halls, theaters, dormitories, recreational facilities and more. The interiors division officially became Tishman Interiors Corporation in 198 1. Tle company assumes a variety of roles: Construction manager, general contractor, owner's rep, program manager or project manager. Tishman Technologies helps expand Tishman Interiors capabilities beyond standard interiors constructionas well as doing its own projects. This division specializes in construction and installation of high technology electronic office

systems and integrated building systems including: Data and telecommunications, building management and envirorunental controls, security, life safety, ADA requirements, audiovisual, emer- gency and uninterruptabi e power sources.

"These are all specialties unto themselves, " said Robert Accardi, executive vice president, Tishman Technologies. ... we've tried to cover all the bases from that standpoint. " The company was selected as construction manager or owner's representative for many of the major office interior projects of the 80's, including: Merrfll Lynch Headquarters at the World Financial Center, Swiss Bank Tower/saks Fifth Avenue expansion, Nomura Holding's space at the World Financial Center, and Chrysler Corporation's executive offices in New York. Major hotel construction and renova-

tion assignments in the past few years have been the St. Regis, the Algonquin, Sheraton New York systems upgrade, and the Four Seasons on East 57th Street.

Among the many renovations of cultural institutions that Tishman managed were: Carnegie Hall, the auditorium at the New School, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the New Haven City Hall.

Special contributionsoftishmantechnologies have included one of the largest cablingjob ever for Merrill Lynch's 1.5 million-square-foot offices at 101 Hudson Street injersey City; installationof a sophisticated communications network at the World Financial Center for Nomura Holding America; upgrade of the sound and lighting at Carnegie Hall; and a five-year security, fire alarm and climate control upgrade at Rockefeller Center.

Government Work Grows While new office projects are at a minimum., Tishman has been doing building studies for owners concerned with the competitiveness of their buildings and analyzing spaces to measure their effectiveness for potential tenants. Tishman did the pre-construction analysis and will do the build-out for the

new IRS headquarters at Durst's 11.3.3 Avenue of the Americas. The 240,000- square-footleasedealcallsforaseparate entrance, a second floor sky lobby and a dedicated bank of elevators. T'hey are also continuing to pursue govemment work. Due to changes in the economy, the Tishman executives say, the ratio of private-sector to publicsector jobs for the divisions has been reversed. Sixty percent of their work is now derived from the public sector and 40 percent from the private sector. "Geographically, we've spread out in areas where there is going to be increased govermuent work as well as renovation and rehabilitation, " said Kiri Borg, directorof Business Development for Tishman Interiors. Tishman also has expertise in infrastructure, which is a fruitful source of worktoday. Recentprojectshave included a rail maintenance facil ity in Chicago, a prison in Connecticut, a co-generation plant and a roadway system at JFK International Airport. "Most people think of us as only highrisebuilders, butwe've probablvdone as much infrastructure than ;nyone, Accardi said. In keeping with its commitment to small, quality work, members of the firm are involved in the Port Authoritysponsored Regional Alliance for Small Contractors, which offers seminars to small firms and assists them in applying for certain types of govermnent work.