120 West 42nd Street (aka The Annex Building / The Cubes)
Part of the 3 Bryant Park Complex
New York, NY 10036
Located just a block from Times Square, 120 West 42nd Street—commonly referred to as The Annex Building or The Cubes—is an integral component of the 3 Bryant Park site. This high-visibility retail frontage along 42nd Street offers prime exposure within one of Midtown Manhattan’s busiest corridors.
Type
Retail Subdivision and Fit-Out Coordination
NLSA was engaged to reposition a long-vacant retail space at the Annex Building, transforming it into two leasable units to accommodate an incoming bakery tenant (fit-out by others) and provide a flexible second retail space for future tenancy.
Scope of work included:
Construction of a new demising wall to create two separate retail spaces
Space planning and test fits for prospective tenants
Relocation of the primary retail entry to serve the 42nd Street-facing unit
Infill and enclosure of an abandoned entryway
Coordination and provision of base building services for both new spaces
In addition to design services, NLSA also provided support in updating the Building Rules and Regulations for 120 West 42nd Street, helping to align operational policies with the evolving needs of new and existing tenants.
Design
Working closely with the building’s asset management team, engineering staff, and MdeAS Architects—the building architect of record—NLSA ensured that the retail subdivision was seamlessly integrated into the Annex Building’s design framework.
Key challenges included:
Coordination of below-slab utilities (drainage, wiring, grease traps) while minimizing disruption to major tenants, including Whole Foods, whose storage and operational spaces were directly impacted
Relocation of the main retail entry, requiring collaboration with MdeAS Architects to maintain the original base building aesthetic and source alternatives for a discontinued glazing product to ensure consistency with existing materials
