Every day around 4 p.m., a rich, buttery smell invades Vogue’s new glossy black digs at One World Trade Center.
That’s when someone sneaks a packet of popcorn into the microwave — and the accompanying stench wafts through the office and clings to the haute couture that fills the mag’s pages.
“All of the Vogue team is trying to figure out who is doing it so we can ask that person to stop,” dishes one staffer, who asked to not be named for professional reasons.
People make popcorn and barbecued food. There are high-end clothes and clients coming in. We don’t want it to smell like food.
“Given the current rat problem, and the fact that it is Vogue, you would think people would be smarter and wait to munch on buttered popcorn until they can take their Manolos off at home,” explains the tipster.
When the glossy was located in Times Square, employees were banned from making popcorn. But now that Vogue shares two floors with Architectural Digest — including a kitchen — tensions are growing.
“People make popcorn and barbecued food. There are high-end clothes and clients coming in. We don’t want it to smell like food,” adds the Vogue-ette, who joins a chorus of kvetching Condé Nast employees less than enamored of their new digs.
In November, the storied publisher — whose other titles include Vanity Fair, GQ and Bon Appétit — made a long-awaited move from 4 Times Square to the soaring, 104-story 1 WTC. (Condé takes up floors 20 through 44.)
But the migration from the Crossroads of the World to a relatively desolate and construction-filled area of the Financial District has not been without its hiccups — and detractors.
“All you have to do is come by and eavesdrop on every conversation in the hallways. Every single one is a gripe about the new building,” dishes another Condé Nast employee.
The laundry list of complaints includes the rodents, which reportedly invaded the fancy fashion title’s offices in November; long waits for deliveries; and a lack of pampering amenities.
“We don’t even have a good coffee place nearby. We were stuck drinking those awful Flavia packets,” says one caffeine-starved snitch at a women’s glossy.
Even Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, the biggest cheerleader for the building, addressed the lack of amenities in the area in the magazine’s February issue.
“It will be fascinating to see how the landscape is transformed (I hope one result will be an outpost of Starbucks a little closer to the office),” she wrote. (Vogue declined to comment for this article.)
To the relief of many, the company’s famously sprawling cafeteria — which serves grub like cocoa-dusted red bliss potatoes and eggplant Parmesan heroes — opened on Feb. 10 and started serving coffee.
To boost morale and take the focus off the Vogue vermin, the company has been inviting editors to Instagram photos of the beautiful space, according to Page Six. Signs in the company canteen read “Instagram Me,” and employees are encouraged to follow the cafe’s feed, @cafe1wtc. As of Wednesday, there were 134 followers.
But there are few lunch options outside the building, and Seamless isn’t exactly efficient. Many magazine employees say it takes more than an hour to get their grub, and the delivery guys can’t even find the entrance to the building.
“They have everything in Times Square — sushi, salads, pizza,” says the Vogue staffer. “Brookfield is expensive. I am not paying $20 for a salad,” she says, referring to the high-end mall across the street and its pricey Hudson Eats food court.
Some are still making the trek to Midtown to the Lambs Club, the 44th Street power lunch spot that was always thought of as an extension of the Condé cafeteria.
“They’re definitely saying, ‘We miss you.’ I’ve heard about people going to the Odeon [a 10-minute walk away], but I haven’t heard about a new de facto cafeteria yet,” says Lambs Club co-owner David Rabin.
He adds that Wintour, as well as Vanity Fair publisher Chris Mitchell, have been back for midday powwows, “though it’s not with the same frequency that they were here before.”
There are literally no places to get your nails done.
- Vogue staffer on the isolated location of the new office
And for a tower housing some of the most elite editors in the fashion and beauty biz, the dearth of nail and blowout salons has caused a kink in grooming routines.
“There are literally no places to get your nails done, but in Midtown you could go anytime and find a salon,” says the Vogue wag.
Though salons like John Barrett already have plans to open steps away from the building, Glamsquad, which sends makeup artists and hairstylists to homes and offices, has seen a bump in its Condé business.
“Since they started trickling down there, Glamsquad has definitely seen an increase in the frequency of in-office appointments,” says Amanda Rosenberg, VP of marketing and communications at the traveling beauty business. “Editors make up a good subset of our clientele . . . I expect that those at Condé Nast are leaning on us even more now that they are located in an area without many other options.”
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Aesthetics aside, many tipsters say tight security delays deliveries, which are quarantined for up to 48 hours. Josh Weitzner, owner of Samurai Messenger service, says it’s difficult to get garment bags and packages to the building in a timely manner because of the tighter rules.
“You have to park your bike two blocks away and lug heavy garment bags,” says Weitzner. Messengers then have to walk up five steps, down two escalators, through a revolving door and two fire doors to reach the messenger center.
“In a business where your client wants things delivered on deadline, adding a two-block walk, escalators and a revolving door doesn’t help.”
Employees were also rankled by the large chunks of ice falling from the city’s tallest building — a frightening event that happened twice in February, leading authorities to shut down areas of the perimeter.
“They had to close off half of the building,” says a male editor, who asked to not be named for professional reasons. “It was the whole street. Is that what we’re going to have to do the entire life span of this building? It seems weird to not have figured that out in advance. There’s still construction, so it’s a big waste of time because you have to go around the memorial and another construction area. It’s pretty irritating.”
However, there is one perk that seems to make up for all of the agita — the views.
“It’s freezing in the Vogue offices on the 25th and 26th floors. All our workers wear fur all of the time. And we all have gloves on in the office,” says the popcorn-hating Vogue employee. “But the best thing is, I get to see the sunset on the West Side Highway. It’s spectacular.”