Architectural firms assist New York Merchantile Exchange.

In these trying times, the frenetic pace of the New York Mercantile Exchange commodities trading operation can continue without missing a beat, thanks to the foresight of the Exchange management and the work of two New York architectural firms.

Soon after Sept. 11, the New York Mercantile Exchange, located in the World Financial Center, was quick to realize that immediate precautions were imperative for preserving the continuity of its business operations. A decision was made to create a duplicate trading facility.

If a crisis temporarily uproots the Exchange from its Battery Park City home, traders can immediately resume work at a backup trading facility on Long Island, designed by the SoHo firms of Peter Skujins Architect PC and Stonehill & Taylor Architects. The project's urgency dictated a fast-track schedule.

PSA principal Peter Skujins enlisted the help of Paul Taylor, of Stonehill & Taylor, to help meet project demands.

The architects, both with extensive experience in trading floor design, set to work creating a new 40,000 SF facility that duplicates the one in Manhattan.

"After 9/11, a lot of financial institutions felt they were at risk of becoming targets for terrorism," Skujins said. As for the Exchange, "they needed a place uniquely suited to their specialized operation, a place they could safely assemble and conduct business during a crisis."

After inspecting several locations, an undisclosed site on Long Island was selected for the Exchange's Disaster Recovery Site/Back-up Trading Facility.

"The challenge was to design a facility similar enough to their existing space in layout and materials to make them feel at home, yet do so economically, since the hope was that the space would never have to be used," Skujin said.