Jets Florham Park Headquarters designed by David Childs

[STT757]

Jets roll out a look at the 'showpiece'
Noted architect designed Florham Park site

Saturday, September 09, 2006
BY JOHN WIHBEY
Star-Ledger Staff

With a field house high enough for a booming punt and office space sufficient to pack in scores of employees and corporate clients, the Jets headquarters will be a "showpiece," Jets president Jay Cross said yesterday.

And as if the mammoth modern facility proposed for Florham Park wasn't impressive enough in its size, it enjoys the glow of a big name architect, David Childs.

Childs also is designing the proposed Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan and the new Moynihan train station, across from Penn Station in Manhattan.

"You don't get these every day," Childs, of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, said about designing one of New Jersey's highest profile projects, "even less than tall buildings."

The Jets' corporate brass rolled out plans at a Florham Park news conference for a 20-acre corporate campus and training facility. It features a modern 120,000-square-foot building with spacious corporate offices, a 12,000-square-foot locker room, an 11,000-square-foot weight room, a 100-seat auditorium and a huge field house.

Three grass fields on site will likely be seeded next summer, and the complex, which will cost more than $50 million, is scheduled to be ready for training camp in summer 2008, team officials said. The 30,900 square feet of office space that wraps around the 95-foot-high steel frame indoor field will look out onto an artificial turf field.

Childs, a Princeton native who has designed college sports facilities but never a professional complex, said the team was an irresistible client. "When you say you're working on the Jets (headquarters), everybody smiles," he said, noting it is essentially a sports "learning place" and was much more like designing "a college campus than a stadium."

The complex -- designed to meet environmental standards under the U.S. Green Building Council -- uses space in a "bipolar" fashion, providing separate entrances and sides of the building for players and company staff, Cross said. In preparation, the team studied other new team headquarters built recently in cities such as Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

However, a long tunnel or "interior street" will allow foot traffic to flow throughout, a feature that makes the Jets headquarters unique in the NFL, Cross said. The campus is designed to accommodate 3,000 fans, more than 100 employees and the team's players, coaches, doctors and staff.

The Jets announced in April that the team will move from Hofstra University on Long Island to Florham Park as part of a deal to build a $1 billion stadium in the Meadowlands that will be shared by the Jets and Giants

The Giants opted to make their headquarters at the stadium site, and the Jets took up the state's offer to buy a $20 million, 26-acre parcel on the former Exxon headquarters site in Florham Park.

The mostly wooded property, formerly part of the Twombly Estate and later home to Exxon's headquarters, inspired Childs and his architectural partner, Roger Duffy, to model the Jets' campus layout on features of old hunting properties, they said.

"It's really an extraordinarily beautiful piece of property," said Childs, who was joined by the firm of STUDIOS Architecture, which is responsible for the interior design of the complex.

The Jets project is also part of what Morris County's planners call the area's largest development proposal, which also calls for 500 luxury housing units, a hotel, and 600,000 square feet of office space on the same 268-acre parcel between Park Avenue and Route 24.

Florham Park Mayor Frank Tinari said the Jets complex will be a priority. "That will be fast-tracked ahead of any development on the project," he said.

A sale of the bulk of the 493-acre property is expected to take place between ExxonMobil and the developers in November, and the Jets' parcel would be sold to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.

But some contaminated soil on the Jets' site will need to be carted away, and the developers are working with the state Department of Environmental Protection on other remediation plans to deliver a clean site to the state, officials have said.

Gale Co. President Mark Yeager, who was joined yesterday by project partner Les Smith of Rockefeller Development Group Corp., said the Jets have a "celebrity status" that is smoothing the path to getting the complex project done. "It's a great community relations part of the project," Yeager said.

Cross, who endured many headaches when the team tried to build a new stadium on Manhattan's West Side, said the Florham Park venture has been a little different.

"This has been a very welcome relief," the Jets president said.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey...l=1&thispage=2

[STT757]

There are renderings of the facility and of Childs at the unveiling, I can't hot link to them so here's the article.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs...19/1203/NEWS01

[injcsince81]

Congrats to Florham Park on the Jets and the David Childs building; Jersey City lost B I G T I M E when the Jets made their selection.

Big time.

Oh well.

[JCMAN320]

Injc I agree, but it's just that they had more land to offer than we did. Our site was wedged between a highway, large sports complex, and a golf course. There was just more land in Florham Park site than there was in Jersey City site. I'm happy that they are in New Jersey though even though they aren't in JC.

Look at the brightside though, New Jersey looks better and better everyday with these sports teams increasingly making their homes here in New Jersey along with their players doing the same.

New Jersey Devils
Home Court: Contiental Airlines Arena; Soon to be Newark Arena, Newark NJ
HQ: CAA, East Rutherford, NJ

New Jersey Nets
Home Court: Continental Airlines Arena; Future home to be Atlantic Yards Arena, Brooklyn NY or Newark Arena, Newark NJ.
HQ: CAA, East Rutherford, NJ

New York Giants
Home Court: Giants Stadium; Soon to be Meadowlands Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ
HQ: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

New York Jets
Home Court: Giants Stadium; Soon to be Meadowlands Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ
HQ: Jets HQ, Florham Park, NJ

NY/NJ Red Bulls
Home Court: Giants Stadium; Soon to be Red Bull Park, Harrison, NJ
HQ: One Harmon Plaza, Secaucus, NJ

The Yanks even wanted to move with the Giants in the 70's to the Meadowlands Sports Complex, but Mayor Lindsey stopped them by renovating the stadium in the 70's and then Steinbrenner wanted to move the Yanks to the Meadowlands Sports Complex again most recently in the late 90's and early 2000's if he didn't get his new stadium in the Bronx that they are building now.

My point is made. I'm off the soapbox now.

[Dynamicdezzy]

WORD! you have all that empty space across the hudson...(I'm just playing JCman)

[pianoman11686]

Originally Posted by JCMAN320

New Jersey Nets
Future home to be Atlantic Yards Arena, Brooklyn NY or Newark Arena, Newark NJ.

No.

[JCMAN320]

lol I know Dynamic. Pianoman I'm wishing bro. I want my team that I rooted for since a young boy to remain here. If they don't then they don't I'll still root for them because they will still be the Nets even if they are in Brooklyn like there are people here that still root for the Giants and Dodgers even though they are on the other side of the country. The Nets are not going to cut there history here in Jersey, it's just going to be an extension of the history if they move. The Nets have had their best years in the NBA in New Jersey since they left the ABA and will continue to have great years and players up to and if the move happens. They will always have their roots here in New Jersey and that they started here as the Americans.

Now if they change the name of the Nets to something else, well then I'm going to have to becomce a Sixers fan because they won't be the Nets anymore and I'm not going to root for the Knicks and become an obnoxious Knicks fan!!

[Dynamicdezzy]

I personally don't care as long as there are means of transportation (aside from traveling by car). If any of these arenas are within reach by train, why not.

[JCMAN320]

Yup Meadowlands Complex you will be able to reach by train in late 07. Red Bull Park will be next to the PATH, and the Newark Arena will be only two blocks from Newark Penn Station. So yes dynamic all we be be able to be reached by train.

[STT757]

"IF" the Nets leave I feel another team could easily be attracted to New Jersey either the Meadowlands or the Newark Arena.

The teams I feel could easily be attracted to move to New Jersey are;

Charlotte Bobcats, New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.

[injcsince81]

Originally Posted by STT757

"IF" the Nets leave I feel another team could easily be attracted to New Jersey either the Meadowlands or the Newark Arena.

The teams I feel could easily be attracted to move to New Jersey are;

Charlotte Bobcats, New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.

I'd love to have them if they leave their ridiculous names behind.

PS. Not that the Nets sound any better....

[Marv95]

Originally Posted by STT757

"IF" the Nets leave I feel another team could easily be attracted to New Jersey either the Meadowlands or the Newark Arena.

The teams I feel could easily be attracted to move to New Jersey are;

Charlotte Bobcats, New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.

Why would the Bobcats move when they were just formed 2 years ago with a new arena? And the Hornets would probably end up in Ok City. The only teams that might be tempted to move to Jersey (probably to Newark since the CAA is outdated and the teams that played there haven't made a profit in who knows how long) are Orlando, Seattle and Memphis(I'd choose Orlando since the other 2 are from the west).

[JerzResident]

It wouldn't be hard for New Jersey to get another team. Being located in the second largest city in the NY Metro area is definatly attractive for smaller market franchises

[JCMAN320]

Atlantic Health buys naming rights for Jets' NJ practice facility

by The Associated Press Tuesday October 23, 2007, 6:47 AM


JIM WRIGHT/FOR THE STAR LEDGER
The Jets held a press conference in September to unveil preliminary designs for the team training facility and corporate headquarters in Florham Park.


The New York Jets today will announce a naming rights deal with a New Jersey health care system for the team's headquarters and practice facility in Florham Park, team officials said.

The campus under construction in Florham Park will be called the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, named for the nonprofit health care system that includes Overlook Hospital in Summit and Morristown Memorial Hospital.

The NFL team declined to disclose the amount of the 12-year deal, or the other companies it considered.

New York Jets CEO Woody Johnson said the team is thrilled to call Atlantic Health its partner.

"Not only are we creating a competitive advantage for our team by building a first-rate corporate campus to accommodate the needs of our football and business operations and utilizing the best that technology has to offer, we are also partnering with a company that has deep roots in the New Jersey community," Johnson said.

The naming rights will be announced during a cornerstone dedication ceremony at the site, with New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine scheduled to attend.

The Jets are relocating their offices and training facility from Long Island to New Jersey as part of deal to build a new stadium for the team and New York Giants at the Meadowlands. The teams are jointly financing the $1.3 billion stadium and are working on a naming rights deal for that building.

The Jets are paying the $75 million construction cost for their training facility.

[JCMAN320]

Just a lil update. I was watchin' Daily News Live on SNY and they were talkin about the Jets and they stated that the new HQ and Training facility will be done THIS August

Also reported is that Jets players are already looking for homes in Norhtern New Jersey to join their Giants counterparts and other sports contemporarys with the Devils, Nets, and Red Bull players living in New Jersey.