Tour the Chinese-American Planning Council's First Permanent Headquarters in NYC

The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) makes a permanent mark in NYC with their new HQ by M Moser Associates.

Project Overview:

Design Firm: M Moser Associates
Client: Chinese-American Planning Council, New York
Completion Date: 2024
Location: New York, New York, USA
Size: 40,000 sq ft

This past April 2024, the Chinese-American Planning Council’s (CPC) opened its first ever permanent headquarters and community center after a decade of work by CPC’s Board of Directors, Leadership Team and the community members it supports through its social services. The new headquarters and community center space was made possible by a partnership with Gotham Organization, the real estate development partner.

Guided by CPC’s core design principles of equity, inclusivity and accessibility, and in partnership with M Moser, the project blossomed into a space that empowers the 60,000 low-income, immigrant and Chinese American New Yorkers that CPC serves annually. The new state-of-the-art headquarters breaks new ground on how design can create and grow the joy, education, and safety for CPC’s community members to improve their and their families’ lives.

Founded in 1965, Chinese-American Planning Council is the nation’s largest Asian-American social services organization. Its services fall under the three pillars of Education, Family Support, and Community and Economic Development. Programs under the Education pillar provides high-quality learning opportunities for all ages- from Pre-K and after-school enrichment to adult English language classes. Programs under the Family Support break down cultural and linguistic barriers for individuals and families to access personalized social resources. Lastly, the Community and Economic Empowerment pillar represents the work CPC does to empower New Yorkers to represent and advocate for themselves and their communities.

There is great pride in the fact that the project’s design philosophy produced a headquarters and community center that reflects CPC’s mission and work. As a nod to its Chinese-American roots, CPC also used two Asian-American community-based artists Yukiko Izumi and Ji Yong Kim to produce murals in its student lounge and waiting area.

Project Planning

The planning for CPC’s headquarters and community center was led by a Chief Officer at the organization and the organization’s Board of Directors, staff and community members all weighed in on potential design ideas and needs for the new space. The final design was an intergenerational labor of love by Board Members and staff who have been with the organization from fifty years to new employees who just joined the organization.

M Moser’s design fuses the best practices implemented in corporate commercial spaces and the needs of a grassroots community-based organization. M Moser maintained a high degree of design quality in its color, lighting and flooring even while meeting CPC’s core need of flexibility in all of our spaces. In order to meet current and emerging needs, each of the spaces needed to be designed to shift into other uses quickly. M Moser implemented flexibility measures such as wheels on all furniture, durable finishes, and consistent design choices throughout the space so you could shift the use of the space with ease.

This flexibility is highlighted in the largest space, the conference center, which can fit 200 people. The space features two dividers and multiple lighting and shade settings which enables the space to be utilized for a diverse range of programming from a sit-down gala to a classroom. The conference center space has already been used for both!

Project Details

CPC serves New Yorkers across 50 programs and over 35 program sites. The headquarters was designed not only for the over 100 staff members with permanent desks at the new space but CPC employees across New York City. CPC named the space CPC One, to represent that they are one organization and one community. There are gender neutral bathrooms on each floor, wellness rooms on two of the three floors, a bike room and private entrance and self-enclosed space for their HIV/AIDS program. Staff lounges were also built in each corner of the space and set up wellness activities encouraging staff to take wellness breaks while taking in views of the Lower East Side.

As one team, CPC also designed the new space as a campus, with a central staircase that connects the ground floor lobby to the two levels above as well as back staircase from the second to the third floor. A means of circulation and interaction for everyone, it provides areas for respite, casual connection and alternative workstations – giving employees autonomy in their work environment.

The M Moser team utilized CPC branding across CPC One. The CPC Pantone color was used for the donor wall and in design elements through the space. The donor wall design spanning all three floors is an original design inspired by the meaning of a quilt where multiple parts make up a greater whole. Each donor was represented by a tile in varying shades of the Pantone color and is magnetic, which enables CPCs to tell different stories by rearranging the tiles. Nods to CPC’s history can be found throughout the modern design, an example is the shape of the booths which is a hexagon was inspired by the first organizational logo designed by a Board Member’s brother decades ago.

Overall Project Results

CPC’s staff has noted the most difficult change management aspect has been the death of lunch options in the new location! The President & CEO has held several meetings to gather feedback since moving in and a Building Committee representing each division has also been created to resolve any emerging space concerns.

Part of the success is credited to surveying the staff during the design process and carrying over aspects of the previous workplace prioritization. Some examples of this are ensuring new desks were a comparable size and that each staff member had private storage for their belongings. Emphasizing equity and having that carried out through both the second floor which holds the program staff and the third floor which holds the central administration staff has also been key. All offices including the President & CEO’s are of comparable size and all furnishings and amenities are consistent through the space.