A family business now in its fourth generation and approaching its 80th birthday, Gotham Construction Company, LLC began as the construction division of the Gotham Organization. Founded by Nathan Picket, the company traces its roots to 1913 but it was formally incorporated as Gotham Construction Company in 1931. Gotham's earliest construction projects included an art deco milk bar and the City of New York Information Center at Grand Central Station—two quality projects that, in the wake of the high profile achieved by the company during the latter half of the last century, seem, frankly, very quaint.

Today, Gotham is not only a primary leader in the New York City construction industry, but ranks as one of the largest builders in the U.S. and among the oldest construction firms in the Northeast. The company has evolved into a full-service builder, providing preconstruction, construction, and consulting services on buildings including a diverse portfolio of health care and educational facilities, hotels, urban commercial and retail centers, government-subsidized housing, and luxury residential high-rise buildings. Renowned for high-quality and timely performance, the company also has been lauded for its sense of style, most recently for spearheading a wave of smart, sleek lobbies throughout Manhattan.

Since 1965, when CEO and Chairman Joel I. Picket, Nathan's grandson, began his tenure leading Gotham, the firm has prided itself on being a "medium-sized company that can do big work." Most recently, Gotham has been focusing not only on building big, but on building green. Its current construction portfolio includes four green buildings: the Epic, with developer Sidney Fetner & Associates, at 125 West 31st Street; the Millennium, with developer Millennium Partners, in Battery Park City; and the Octagon, with developer Becker & Becker Associates, on Roosevelt Island. But with 200 West 72nd Street, which broke ground last April, Gotham is moving from green construction into green development—all under the direction of company President David L. Picket, who represents Gotham's fourth generation and heads the company's development arm.

A rendering of 200 West 72nd Street.

To be constructed on a lot of approximately 20,000 square feet, 200 West 72nd Street (located on the southwest corner of 72nd Street and Broadway) is a $200 million project. This green, state-of-the-art, luxury rental apartment building will also house 47,910 square feet of prime retail space on the first five floors, including a 10,420-square-foot sub-lower level, 9,300-square-foot ground floor, 11,600-square-foot second floor, and 2,725-square-foot mezzanine level. New York House magazine caught up with Joel and David Picket at the future site of 200 West 72nd Street, whose foundation is currently being created, to discuss Gotham's transition to green development. The Pickets are shown here during our tour of some of Gotham's best known buildings, including The Atlas, located on Sixth Avenue and 38th Street.

So you're a four-generation company.
David: Yes. First of all, we're a development company that does development work for our own account, and we also have a full-service construction company that provides work for others. Through the years, that's been a combination of private developers and institutional clients. The past several years we have been doing a lot of private work because the development climate has been so favorable in New York. Now with things slowing down a bit, we are trying to pick up more institutional work on the construction end. On the development side, it's all our own projects, which are mostly residential and large-scale urban retail/entertainment centers.

200 West 72nd Street is to be a green building—is this Gotham's first?
David: As a developer, yes. But we've done quite a number of green buildings for others, so from a construction perspective, green construction is familiar ground for us. From a developer's point of view, it's a new start for us.

What made you decide to go green as developers?
David: Well, other than being eco-minded citizens, most of the new rentals and condos coming on line are green. Green is state-of-the-art and a state of mind right now, so it's almost expected at this point that, as developers, we're going to build green, especially since we're in this for the long haul and we don't want our buildings to become outdated. You probably could get away with not building a green building now, but 10 years from now, I would expect that most buildings are going to incorporate green elements, so we don't want to position ourselves at a disadvantage.