Dean & DeLuca STAGE by Ole Scheeren
Dean & DeLuca STAGE by Ole Scheeren is a new concept for a chef-led eatery design that puts a spotlight on the presentation and preparation of food and the people involved in the process. Conceived for Dean & DeLuca, New York’s legendary gourmet market and international curator of fine foods, STAGE – with its reference to a theatrical setting – embodies an interactive, contemporary notion of culture. STAGE is an object that is both recognisable and repeatable, but also integrates a sense of local specificity and uniqueness. Dean & DeLuca originated in September 1977 when Joel Dean, Giorgio DeLuca, and Jack Ceglic opened their first grocery store in an industrial space on Prince Street in Soho, Manhattan. During the 1970s and ‘80s, cultural icons from Robert De Niro to Donald Judd discovered a unique selection of food from around the world at the legendary New York gourmet market. Through its relentless exploration and inventive definition of culinary trends, it acquired a legendary status as one of New York’s iconic food institutions and leading international curator of fine food. Dean & DeLuca once again forays into the territory of discovery and exploration with the opening of STAGE, Ole Scheeren’s vision for a chef-led eatery design that celebrates food as a profound cultural and social experience. STAGE expands Dean & DeLuca’s existing gourmet market offering, introducing a new ‘small format’ that offers high-quality food to a sophisticated audience. The first Dean & DeLuca STAGE is located in New York’s Meatpacking District, one of the city’s most vibrant and lively neighbourhoods, in close proximity to the Whitney Museum of American Art and the High Line. A further Dean & DeLuca STAGE is expected to open in New York later this year. Food – its creation, presentation and enjoyment – is one of the most important shared human experiences. However, fast food is at the one of the spectrum which is predominantly solitary. STAGE is conceived as a social magnet, a spectacular showpiece that attracts and brings people together and encourages interaction between the people making and the people consuming the food. STAGE is a glowing, pristine object of polished stainless steel placed in the centre of the space: a theatrical STAGE for the presentation and celebration of food. Whilst most establishments feature a merely utilitarian sales and display counter pushed against the perimeter wall, STAGE is a central platform that allows people to circulate around it as they interact with the staff and watch their food being prepared. The space is given a focal point, and the STAGE becomes the energy centre for a theatrical interplay of ‘actors’ and ‘audience’. The continuous discovery of ingredients and the visual experience of the staff’s mastery in preparing the fresh delicacies change the perspective of fast food retail and redefine the relationship between customer and product. STAGE can be inserted into spaces of almost any kind and nature. Instead of concealing these interior “ENVELOPES” through fake decoration, existing spaces become ‘objets trouvés’: different contexts that retain their authenticity and diversity. STAGE is inserted into this raw context as an autonomous, flexible unit – a singular refined object, optimized and globally multipliable across diverse contexts and locations; a STAGE for the presentation and celebration of fine food. The formal autonomy and abstract identity of the STAGE allows its existence within the most diverse environments: the ENVELOPES of found or given spaces are maintained and stripped down to reveal their original local character. Through its highly reflective steel surfaces, the STAGE visually dematerializes and merges with the local ENVELOPES and diverse characters of the different contexts, turning each site into a unique experience. STAGE, as an emblematic and iconic object, defines Dean & DeLuca’s globally recognizable identity, while the found ENVELOPES embed the brand in locally specific contexts. STAGE contains an undulating TOPOGRAPHY milled from a solid block of white Corian, creating a dramatic landscape for the display and celebration of food and ingredients. The sculpted surface of the TOPOGRAPHY creates a multi-layered, high-tech food display system with the visual quality of a still-life painting. The food landscape conceals state-of-the-art technology under its delicate surface, with invisible heating and cooling units supplying the different service sections.
547 West 47th Street - The West Residential
Concrete presents The West, a unique residential building in Manhattan. The West is composed of two architectural elements: the base of the building is characterized by a robust brick façade, recalling the industrial character of the area and the townhouses of Manhattan. On the top, the light and airy apartments make the most of the views over the Manhattan skyline. This top section, hosting penthouse-like apartments, presents glass boxes that pop in an out of the building. The result is a transparent and cloud-like architecture that appeals to the cosmopolitan atmosphere of New York. Additionally, the different orientation of these boxes provides every unit with a private terrace. The West Residence Club is located in Hell's Kitchen, one of Manhattan's most sprouting neighborhoods, known for its industrial character and its rich, colorful history, which combined, create an unmistakable mystique. The U-shaped building stretches from the corners of 47th Street and 48th Street along 11th Avenue. The West, with a total of 222 apartments, introduces a new way of living. Its condos – a mix of studios, 1 and 2+ bedroom apartments – are smartly designed to create the best residential experience, enhanced by extensive communal spaces and outdoor areas. The amenities, which include a co-working area, a glasshouse library, a playroom for kids, a communal kitchen, and a dining area, aim to create comfort and foster interaction between residents. Inspired by the social function of NY-style stoops, the main entrance of the building is created by a small entrance plaza, forming a smooth transition between the public street and the private building. The plaza offers different seating facilities that develop around a central tree. On the rooftop, an extensive pool deck is combined with BBQ pits and communal seating areas under a wooden pergola: it’s the perfect spot to enjoy the sunset. A major focal point of the building is the craftsmanship of the construction and design; bespoke interior and exterior elements create a sophisticated atmosphere in which every detail is considered. This includes a 5-story custom mural, created by artist Rubin. This craftsmanship culminates in the intricate brickwork of The West's facade, the result of a collaboration between Concrete and StoneCycling, a Dutch firm committed to the sustainable manufacturing of up-cycled bricks. The bricks are made out of a proprietary blend of recovered construction debris blended with raw clay, quarried in the Netherlands. Over 260.000 kg of waste has been up-cycled for the bricks used in this building. A total of forty different brick shapes and sizes were required for the project: each piece was individually hand-brushed with a subtly reflective glass glaze before being fired in a centuries-old factory. The unique glass glaze creates a variety of shades and glossiness during the day, resulting in a different read of the building every time one sees it.
Second Skin
Project description Second Skin, by Wilkinson Eyre with engineers Eckersley O’Callaghan, is a theoretical study exploring how New York’s ageing office stock can be re-purposed to retain the bulk of a building’s fabric and associated embodied carbon, bring buildings up to modern design aspirations and halve their energy use. Taking a typical 1960s building, 63 Madison Avenue, it looks at retaining the superstructure while replacing all cladding and servicing to give it a contemporary image and a new lease of life. This thinking could be applied to thousands of office buildings in New York and around the world and is intended to tackle the waste of knocking down buildings, which are often only fifty years old or less. The design employed the concept of an 'adaptive net' facade; creating a habitable area of balconies and winter gardens across the surface of the building, incorporated into a regular cladding system. The net responds to the specifics of the building's locale; protecting against city conditions of noise, pollution and wind; while exploiting sunlight, optimising views out and introducing natural greening. The façade was mapped and a kit of parts developed to deal with orientation and specific site conditions. A system of external shading/reflectors was developed to provide shade, reduce glare and increase daylight penetration, hereby increasing the quality of light and improving the daylit floor area by 20%. Thermal modelling demonstrated that this concept (combined with an improvement in the efficiency of M&E equipment) would offer an annual 50% reduction in carbon emissions as well as an embodied carbon offset after only four years. The proposed planting and vegetation strategy is also responsive to light, heat, humidity and seasonal variations; its baseline palette selected to increase biodiversity and ecological resilience by reflecting the pre-settlement diversity of ‘Mannahatta’. The modular design utilises a simple tensile support system, using top hung cables strutted off curtain wall mullions which avoid cold bridging. The variety of components -suspended in space –are optimised against site analysis and could also be swapped during the life of the building, as uses change. This tuned approach seeks to use s-mart (parametric) design with simple fabrication techniques that are both replicable and adaptable putting the user and their wellness at the centre of the design. Drawing upon knowledge from the industry, the system captures some of the principles of a closed cavity facade (CCF) curtain wall but in a simpler manner by utilising dry-sealed glazing as opposed to conventional wet-sealed (silicone) construction. This means glazing units can be refurbished rather than replaced which should increase the anticipated service life of units by 60%, as well as allowing for efficient deconstruction, recycling and re-use. Second Skin was originally entered in the international Metals in Construction 2020 Design Challenge, where it won first prize.
Vessel
Vessel is a new type of public landmark – a 16-storey circular climbing frame, with 2,465 steps, 80 landings and views across the Hudson River and Manhattan. It is the central feature of the main public square in the Hudson Yards development, one of the largest real estate projects in American history, which is transforming a former rail yard in Manhattan’s Upper West Side into a completely new neighbourhood, with more than five acres of new public spaces and gardens. Heatherwick Studio was asked to design a centrepiece for Hudson Yards, something that would welcome visitors into the heart of the district and creating a new place to meet in Manhattan. Part of the challenge was to create something memorable that would not be overwhelmed by the surrounding cluster of towers, or the scale of the new public space above the train platform. Exploring different possibilities, the team started to narrow the parameters: it should be a memorable single object, not a series of objects dispersed throughout the space; rather than an inert, static sculpture, it should be a social encounter, which encourages activity and participation – it should be fun. Looking at the places in cities where people naturally congregate, the underlying infrastructure is often simple – a staircase, for example, such as the famous Spanish Steps in Rome. Researching this typology further, the studio explored traditional Indian stepwells; these have an intricate network of stone stairs, so that as the water level in the reservoir changes, the surface is still accessible. However, like an amphitheatre, the focus of a well is its centre, and the studio wanted to create an experience that was outward as well as inward-looking. By opening up voids between the steps to create a three-dimensional lattice, the public square could be stretched upwards, creating more than a mile of routes that could be explored in different ways. To create the continuous geometric pattern of the stepwell, with 154 interconnecting flights of stairs, the object had to be self-supporting – a discreet structural solution was required, which did not need additional columns and beams. This was resolved by inserting a steel spine between each pair of staircases, creating a natural division between ‘up’ and ‘down’. The raw welded steel of this structure is exposed to give the object clarity and integrity, and the underside of the staircases is clad in a deep copper-toned metal, setting them apart from the surrounding architecture. Every element of the Vessel is bespoke, from the joints to the handrails. The 75 huge steel components were produced in Venice by specialist fabricator Cimolai, before being brought from Italy in six shipments, carried across the Hudson River by barge, and assembled on site in a process that took three years. Yet despite the size of the Vessel, it has been designed at a human scale, to be climbed, explored and enjoyed by New Yorkers and visitors – a simple structure, animated by people and the reflections of the square beneath. Since opening in March 2019, the project has been visited by over half a million people - a sign of its popular success.
Inverted Architecture: A Mushroom Brick Pyramid
‘More than Human Adventure' is the theme of our Exhibition for the 2022 Shenzhen Biennale, titled Urban Cosmologies. In response to the theme Studio Link-Arc proposes to explore the intersection between living organisms and architecture. Mycelium (mushroom) is a living root-like structure that can sometimes cover thousands of acres. It has tremendous abilities to survive and adapt to various environment and its demands. In this installation we aim to reflect, visualize and learn from such organisms, adapting the languages and techniques of architecture towards the future. Using the language of construction, this installation explores relationships between architecture and an ecosystem that is mostly unknown. The aim is to dissolve boundary and create a symbiosis, a collaboration between both realms. The inverted-pyramid shape flips traditional views on its head, illustrating the existence of second natures, double functionality, duplicate purposes, man-made and nature, present and future, and finally growth and decay. A symbol that is also an anti-symbol. The installation consists of 400 hanging mushroom bricks, a renewable and bio-degradable material. Bricks are grown rather than manufactured. Using agricultural waste straw, bagasse, wheat bran as substrate, mycelium grows naturally and in time solidifies. The end result is a material with enough structural strength and plasticity that, under the right temperature and humidity, can grow into any shape. Once its life as construction material ends, several months in the soil will see complete degradation of the mushroom brick. There is no burden to the environment. The exhibition takes place in a converted old brewery, with gallery spaces between continuous concrete frame. The indoor-outdoor space provides an ideal place for mushroom bricks to absorb moisture from the air. In addition, a pool is created under the installation to provide a moist micro-climate. The mycelium will be deactivated in the manufacturing process. To compensate we selected some bricks to grow fresh mushrooms within after assembly. The hope is to make this installation part of the sustainable ecological cycle, a man-made device that grows and evolves as a living organism.
NYPD 40th Precinct
Located in the southern Bronx directly across the street from St. Mary’s Park, the new NYPD 40th Precinct Station replaces a station house on 138th Street and creates a dedicated space for the community, areas for fitness and training for officers. The form of the 45,000-sq-ft, three-story building is derived from its programmatic requirements, where individual volumes that contain specific elements of the program revolve around a 60-ft light-filled atrium. The precinct’s precast concrete façade alternates between sandblasted and polished finishes, which stand in contrast to the exterior's reflective glass and metal mesh. Reentrant walls allow windows to be set back from the building perimeter, offering improved privacy and security. On the interior, the station is enhanced with metal-paneled acoustic ceilings, ultra-high-performance concrete panels that cover the walls and terrazzo flooring in the lobby. Amenities provide spaces for officers to relax and promote physical activity, including a stress reduction courtyard with separate areas for exercise and training. The project also houses dedicated space for detective and domestic violence units. The 40th Precinct features a new piece of city program: the first ever community meeting room in a New York City police precinct. With its own street-level entrance, the multipurpose space aims to promote civic engagement and encourage dialogue with the community, with the ability to hold classes or events. The room’s facade is punctuated with round windows in a gradient pattern, allowing for partial transparency between the space and the street while differentiating it from the rest of the building. The space includes a commissioned mural by American artist Jeffrey Gibson while the exterior steps double as benches for the community. Offices at the NYPD 40th Precinct look out onto green roofs atop each individual volume, which optimize the building’s energy performance. The station expresses the City’s commitment to environmental responsibility, surpassing the requirements necessary for LEED Silver certification.
Over/Under Kiosk
“Over/Under” are two curvy kiosks serving cold Heineken to overheated New Yorkers while soaking in magnificent views of the Brooklyn Bridge and East River. Over/Under opened in July 2018 as part of a program of temporary installations by the architects to help activate the Seaport District’s newly-completed Riverdeck at Pier 17. The design of the kiosks imaginatively interprets the design guidelines prescribed in the Seaport District’s master plan which dictated the building form adhere to a strict extrusion of a 2D profile. The kiosks are conceived as a solid block split by a sinuous curve to create two complementary, wave-like volumes. One half, the “Over” portion, arches overhead to provide shade, while “Under” slopes downward to create a bench – and, as an unintended use, an ad hoc dance floor. As such they blur the distinction between shelter and furniture, art and architecture. "Over/Under" was engineered and fabricated by a Brooklyn metal fabrication company, with support from structural engineers.. It was prefabricated before delivery, starting with the 3D laser cutting of six-inch aluminum tubes, each labelled to aid their assembly. The pieces were then shipped to New York for a powder-coat finish and final assembly. Standing ten feet tall, each 150-square-foot structure consists of 800 cylinders. The individual parts were bolted together to create a shell that allows the edifices to stand without an internal frame. A green acrylic roof filters the light and provides Heineken branding. The effect is a shifting play of light resulting from the angled curvature of the tubes’ ends and the changing coastal environment. Other of the architect’s summer pop-ups at the Seaport include the Market Bar, the al fresco River Bar, and custom food trucks on the performance space rooftop.
Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History
The latest addition to New York’s historic American Museum of Natural History, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation will embody the Museum’s integrated mission of science education and exhibition. At a time of urgent need for better public understanding of science and greater access to science education, the Gilder Center will offer new ways to learn about our world and share in the excitement of scientific discovery. The design for the Gilder Center reclaims the physical heart of the museum and completes connections between existing galleries that were originally envisioned in the museum’s 19th-century master plan. Visitor circulation is enhanced to better accommodate the museum’s annual visitation, which over the past several decades has grown from approximately 3 to 5 million. Informed by processes found in nature, the Central Exhibition Hall, which will serve as the Museum’s new Columbus Avenue entrance, will form a continuous, flowing spatial experience along an east-west axis. The design will encourage visitors to move beneath and across connective bridges and along sculpted walls with openings that reveal the Museum’s many programs. Upon entering the space, natural daylight from above and sight lines to various activities inside invite movement through the Central Exhibition Hall on a journey toward deeper understanding. Niche spaces tucked within this central space will house exhibition elements and exciting new learning spaces, while also revealing more of the Museum’s extensive scientific collections. The public will be able to engage with innovative tools used by scientists to gain a deeper understanding of our world and how science is conducted today. Program The Gilder Center will include the five-story Collections Core, housing millions of specimens and artifacts from the Museum’s world-class collection; the immersive Invisible Worlds Theater; the Museum Library, one of the most extensive and important natural history libraries in the world; a 6,210-sf Insectarium, showcasing specimens from the Museum’s insect collection—one of the world’s largest—as well as live insects; a 3,152-sf Butterfly Vivarium, a year-round living exhibit that offers a variety of opportunities for visitors to observe and learn about butterflies; and Learning Zones and classrooms that enhance STEM teaching and learning. Design Understanding the museum’s mission to improve visitor circulation and create multidisciplinary spaces for science and education led to an investigation into natural forces and the ways in which they shape our world at many scales. This involved the study of glaciers, canyons, and riverbeds—spaces that encourage discovery and wonder and record the flow of water and time—as well as experiments exploring how heat, erosion, and dissolution affect materials like ice, foam, and wood, leading to exciting spatial conditions. Translating these experiments into the digital realm, a parametric model simulated water eroding walls into structural arches. A full-scale mockup was formed using an industrial application of concrete that showcases its liquid properties. This technique, originally developed for infrastructural applications, creates a continuous interior without material seams or joints that becomes structural as it cures. The interior of this exciting space will demonstrate the structural principles subject to gravity without the traditional waste of formwork. Size 195,000 sf Sustainability Targeting LEED Gold.
TERA - A SUSTAINABLE HOME FOR THIS PLANET
TERA - A SUSTAINABLE HOME FOR THIS PLANET Welcome home to the most advanced, sustainable building ever conceived. Built with NASA award winning technology, TERA is light years ahead of any known form of construction. TERA’s exterior shell is 3D printed with renewable and recyclable materials which minimize environmental impact without compromising comfort and performance. It offers a simpler, more sustainable solution for building on this planet, while advancing the technologies for living on another. ROBOTIC 3D PRINTING TERA was built from the same autonomous 3D printing technologies and compostable materials we designed for long--term, sustainable life on Mars. Like its predecessor (the NASA-award-winning Martian habitat MARSHA), TERA is built from a 3D printed biopolymer basalt composite –a material developed from crops like corn and sugar cane – tested and validated by NASA to be (at minimum) 50% stronger and more durable than concrete. This material has the potential to be leaps and bounds more sustainable than traditional concrete and steel, leading to a future in which we can eliminate the building industry’s massive waste of un-recyclable materials. It could transform the way we build on Earth – and save our planet. While extruded by a robotic arm, the material in layers will build up as the structure rotates on a turntable, which will be removed from beneath TERA once it’s completed. OFF-GRID LIVING TERA’s rich and playful interior takes its cues from a treehouse. Free of pre-defined rooms, TERA’s “activity areas” are perched on, and nestled in, a spiraling form emerging from the landscape. TERA offers just the basics for a comfortable and cozy existence — a quiet appreciation of Earth and a glimpse into life on a new planet. TERA features a warm and tactile interior made of birch and poplar, selected for their sustainable, fast- growing nature. Prefabricated to simplify on-site assembly, the tree- house like inner structure is mostly self-supporting to minimize structural stresses on TERA’s 3D printed outer shell. TERA’s 24-foot-high, 500-square-foot, two-story space will provide a sleeping pod, a bathroom with a shower, a study area and other amenities.
The Rockefeller University The Stavros Niarchos Foundation – David Rockefeller River Campus
The Rockefeller University Stavros Niarchos Foundation–David Rockefeller River Campus provides large, flexible laboratory spaces, extends the 120-year-old campus’ historic gardens, maximizes vistas, connects with existing research buildings, and centralizes community amenities on a new landscaped platform that sits 16 feet over one of Manhattan’s major arterial waterfront highways. The campus building extension is discreetly sited so as to be invisible from the University’s main entrance and historic campus walks. Its presence marked only by two grand public stairways that extend the landmark gardens from the main campus walk up to two new acres of gardens overlooking Manhattan’s East River. The pedestrian-oriented gardens provide healthy outdoor respite for the campus community and serve as the access to campus amenities: a new dining commons, a new conference center, and centralized offices for the University’s senior leadership. Each expresses an individual identity as pavilions within a garden. The research facility occupies two open floors of contiguous laboratory space, each approximately 1,000 feet long and 105 feet deep. Each floor is bisected by a large collaborative zone with kitchen and dining facilities. A collaborative space captures River views to the east and looks west across a new amphitheater to the historic limestone façade of an existing University building. At grade, between the building and the East River, the project provides a fully rebuilt and landscaped linear public park that is open to the community and maintained by the University. It is actively used throughout the day by cyclists, joggers, sightseers, and pedestrians.
Wildflower Film Studios
The Robert de Niro-led Wildflower Studios is a commercial film studio situated just two miles from Manhattan in the Ditmars-Steinway neighborhood of Astoria, Queens. Film studios are typically organized side by side on large lots, allowing for trucks to deliver goods and services directly to each stage. In the dense urban environment of New York City, this arrangement is reimagined to house the future of film within a reduced footprint. As the first immersive environment for filmed entertainment content of its kind in New York City, the new vertical media production village will be home to storytellers working across all mediums - a three-dimensional hub of collaboration, creativity, and innovation. The project comes at a time when the film and television industry in New York is growing at a rapid pace - helping to satisfy the overwhelming demand for a large production studio in New York City.
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States. It is located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive with its respective county. It is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the United States by both population and urban area. New York is a global center of finance and commerce, culture, technology, entertainment and media, academics and scientific output, the arts and fashion, and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations, international diplomacy. With an estimated population in July 2024 of 8,478,072, distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the country's second-most populous city. Over 20.1 million people live in New York City's metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, both the largest in the U.S. New York City is one of the world's most populous megacities. The city and its metropolitan area serve as the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. An estimated 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The New York City metropolitan region is home to the largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region in the world, approximately 5.9 million as of 2023. New York City traces its origins to Fort Amsterdam and a trading post founded on Manhattan Island by Dutch colonists around 1624.
70 Vestry
This brand-new 14-story building extends the much-admired architectural character of New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood to the Hudson River. Metalwork, pilasters, and multi-story fenestration patterns break down the facades into bays that recall the scale of Tribeca's treasured cast-iron structures and their machine-age interpretation of Renaissance Revival forms. The building’s design is also inspired by the distinguished early 20th-century apartment house precedents from Fifth Avenue to Europe. As at some of New York City's best Upper West Side buildings—the Dakota, the Apthorp, the Belnord—a private driveway leads to a mid-block motor court. A light-flooded double-height lobby and a suite of amenity spaces, including a children's playroom and a lounge for parties, fill out the ground floor; a pool and other health facilities are located below the motor court, which also provides access to the building's automated parking system. Selected for its muted patterning and warm pink undertone, Beaumaniere limestone clads the building’s facade, rising with graduated subtleties: rusticated and split-faced at the first two floors for texture, and sawn-finished on the remaining floors for a smoother, more refined finish with narrow rhythmic fluting details particular to the third floor's fenestration. Expansive cast-iron window frames of varying degrees of thickness group together to lend verticality to the facade, but also open the residences to 360-degree views; most apartments benefit from two exposures, with either corner locations or floor-through plans. The building sets back above the seventh floor to provide ample terraces to upper-floor apartments, rising to a distinctive profile on the skyline.
Do Not Feed Alligators
At first glance, you might get the impression that Do Not Feed Alligators had been designed with the sole aim of being Instagrammable; the buzz it’s generated on social media since opening earlier this year certainly suggests as much. But lingering inside — over a beverage and book perhaps — guests soon find that the aesthetic appeal that first drew them in gives way to an atmosphere that’s refreshingly sincere. What has made DNFA so well loved in the community is not a matter of style — but rather the type of interaction it was designed to inspire. Not long ago, Bleecker Street, the once-lively heart of the West Village in Manhattan, teetered on the brink of oblivion. Shops were boarded up and sidewalks were empty of tourists and locals alike, as the city struggled to find a way to reinvent itself amidst the turmoil of the pandemic. Ways of gathering and forming community had shifted, together with much else in our lifestyles — and a new model of space had yet to be invented to accommodate this change. Do Not Feed Alligators offers its guests a microcosm of the magic of post-Covid urban life, promoting a mix of culture and camaraderie when we need and crave it most. It invites the community to intermix while sipping expertly-crafted European coffees, peruse a carefully curated selection of art books (including the proprietor’s own eponymous tome), attend a robust roster of live events, or sit in a hidden plant-lined courtyard as a record spins whimsically in the background. The design of the space takes on the character of a host: thoughtful and accommodating, but never loud. It’s inspired by a pair of distinctive notions of social experience: hygge, a Danish word signaling a particular kind of coziness, and lebenskraft, a German concept of vital, bustling energy. These terms are said not to be directly translatable into English, but the design works to translate them into the more evocative language of space. Patrons of DNFA are rewarded by taking a deeper look at the layered and complex materials throughout the space that might initially present themselves as neutral. During the afternoon, the sun line cuts across the terrazzo floor and plaster walls in a dramatic fashion. In the evening, the garden lights come on and the food and beverage mix shifts from coffee and black matcha to organic wine and unique cocktails. Breathing new life onto Bleecker Street, DNFA has become a neighborhood staple and a visitor’s must-see. And of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s nearly impossible to take a bad photograph of the space!
Jefferson Market Library
Originally built in 1883, Jefferson Market courthouse has undergone many changes since the late 1870’s. After being abandoned for 13 years, the building was set for demolition in 1959 despite being voted the fifth most beautiful building in America by multiple publications. With the support of the public, the city announced that the building would be preserved and converted into a library. The New York Public Library (NYPL) commissioned WXY architecture + urban design to renovate the lobby and entrance of Jefferson Market Library, one of New York City’s most beloved landmarks. WXY’s design for the library renovation seeks to clarify the functioning of its public spaces -that were once only available to staff- while highlighting the characteristic details of the original structure. The triangular footprint of this converted courthouse results in an awkward arrangement of ground floor spaces, which were previously under-utilized. This is largely due to the placement of the entry, inefficient circulation patterns, and minimally compliant ADA access. In its adaptive reuse approach WXY created access to underutilized spaces and ADA amenities. The renovation includes the removal of built-in elements such as the circulation desk and stair lift, and the provision of new public restrooms. Modifications to the elevator cabs further improve public circulation, and all code compliance issues, including fire protection, are included within the scope of this renovation.
Moynihan Train Hall
On January 1, 2021, New York City celebrated the completion of a long-held dream. The new Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall, named for the visionary United States senator who proposed the project in the 1990s, opened its doors to New Yorkers and travelers from the Long Island Rail Road, Amtrak, the New York City Subway, and the entire northeast region of the U.S. It is one of the most monumental civic projects undertaken in the city in a generation, and transforms the way millions of people will interact with one of the world’s largest cities. Moynihan Train Hall expands the Pennsylvania Station complex with a 225,000-square-foot rail hub in the landmark James A. Farley Post Office Building. Situated across Penn Station between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and West 31st and 33rd Streets, it reverses the dark, overcrowded experience that so many commuters have endured for decades. It brings light to the concourses for the first time in more than 50 years, increases total concourse space by 50 percent, and restores the grandeur that was lost with the demolition of the original Penn Station half a century ago. The original Penn Station was a skylit, Beaux-Arts masterpiece designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1910. The adaptive reuse of the Farley Building – a landmark also designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1913 – represents the transformation of an underutilized and underappreciated building into a new, inviting front door for New York. It evokes the majesty of the original Penn Station – recreating an experience no one has had here in decades. The new train hall, located in the 31,000-square-foot former mail sorting room of the Farley Building, is designed with a dramatic skylight that traverses the entire space – much like the original Penn Station did in 1910. The skylight is arranged in four catenary vaults that reach 92 feet above the concourse. To support the structure, the architects uncovered the building’s massive steel trusses, which had been invisible a century ago, and chose to reveal them as a major focal point of the design. With a web-like structure, the bolted trusses add an extra sense of lightness to the train hall – establishing a modern look and feel while displaying the workmanship of neoclassical design. Even more than preservation, this architectural flourish is a rejuvenation, and an exemplar for the reimagination of historic buildings. The interior spaces of the train hall share a unified material aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from the existing, historic post office at the top of the Farley Building’s staircase as well as Grand Central Terminal, the interior is designed with Tennessee Quaker marble, a material that evokes that sense of warmth, calmness, and grandeur that are central to the design. The building, with entrances on Eighth and Ninth Avenues, as well as 31st and 33rd Streets, serves as a mixed-use anchor for the neighborhood. The Ninth Avenue entrance aligns directly with entrance to developments to the west to create one contiguous pedestrian experience.
One Manhattan West
We were challenged by our client to design three new floors within their existing office stack that were "distinctly different" – with the intent to delight, engage and enhance colleague experience at their One Manhattan West location. Design Goals: • Create a hospitality driven environment that encourages interaction, incidental encounters and craveable social spaces to recharge • Provide varied space types with adaptable settings that support neurodiversity - allowing colleagues to determine how and where to work - both as an individual and in team • Connect employee values with Client values - embrace diversity, inclusion, wellbeing and commitment to the community • Embrace user enabling technology & innovation in sustainable design & materials • Prioritize physical and mental health with opportunities for rest, recuperation and inspiring distraction The design provides sweeping organic shapes, rich warm materials, unique and varied furniture, sculptural lighting, live plants and abundance of natural light. Features include a large flexible gathering zone with a stage and technology for presentation and entertainment, barista / market, conference center with reconfigurable multi-purpose rooms, living room inspired breakout areas with fireplace and upscale finishes, and an extensive variety of space types. Over (40) work settings encourage differing behaviors and postures throughout the day. Purposeful mix and placement of neurodiverse settings engage everyone - such as high focus quiet zones, and 1p booths with adjacent views to the outside, monitor arms, user-adjustable lighting and acoustic materials - for areas with low distraction. Mental and physical respite spaces such as Privacy/Wellbeing rooms with floor space for multi-cultural activity, and an enhanced Quiet/Meditation room offer extensive lighting controls for varied light levels and temperatures, sound control, rock garden with plants, and furniture, textures, and material selections that were taken from neurodiversity research. ADA enhanced team spaces provide adjustable furniture and technology that supports visually and hearing impaired. To further enhance sense of community, artwork is displayed from Artlifting – which showcases work by artists impacted by homelessness or disabilities. Local photography and accessories add a personalized look and feel throughout. The design sets the stage for the next phase of workplace – as a home for ideas, connections, conversations and culture.
Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing
The Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing (PSON) is the private school of nursing of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. It was founded in 1902 as the Beth Israel School of Nursing. by the New York Board of Regents. From 2013 until 2022, it was named Phillips School of Nursing at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and in 2023 it gained its current name.
George Washington Bridge Bus Station
New York City commuter bus terminal.
State University of New York at Fredonia
Four-year liberal arts college.
Smith & Mills
On the concourse level of Rockefeller Center, adjacent to the famous rink and Titan Promethus Statue is the recently opened second location for Tribeca’s beloved Smith & Mills. The guest experience upon entering the space was created with intentionality, drawing people in from the bright bustling flow of Rockefeller Center into a softly lit space in which to get lost. Guests are greeted by the host in a cozy vestibule surrounded by dark tones, dim lighting, and vintage wrought iron elevator cab panels. The panels are a nod to the celebrated elevator cab restroom in the original location. The minimal host stands in front of skinny wood panelling with a deep bevel which is emphasized with two-tone gloss paint. The panelling and a black zellige tile are the primary wall finishes throughout the space. Window treatments are a moody take on the traditional bistro curtain. , Stepping past the entrance and into the restaurant, the main event is a zinc and walnut wrapped oval island bar which sits on a tiled black stone floor. The columns that punctuate the space in between two directional wall panels are clad in zellige tile with inset mirrors. The walls opposite the storefront have large mirrors, custom to the space, but designed to feel antique and industrial, a nod to the mix of old and new aesthetic of the original location. Banquette seating lines the perimeter of the dining room and frames the central island bar. The banquettes are wrapped in complimentary oxblood velvet and leather and are detailed with piping used for legs, another nod to the original location. The white marble tables have a brass band detail and are paired with bistro chairs. A variety of lighting types are used, including pendants, sconces, picture lights, and architectural ceiling strip lighting. The pendants at the front of the bar are by Trainspotters, based on a 1930s original and constructed of cast aluminum and cast bronze with a hand-blown diffuser. The patina black painted pendants at the back of the bar are by Christian Dell, dating to the 1930s. Bronze picture lights accompany the mirrors throughout the bar and Prismatic Glass sconces can be found along the back wall above the main service station. Original artwork by Yelena Yemchuk is a nod to the Art Deco design of Rockefeller Center and contributes to “an atmosphere that transports guests somewhere else” says one of Smith & Mills co-owners. The private dining room is clad in handmade Moroccan red zellige tiles and transition to a wall covering above featuring a botanical print. Seating is flexible and furnished with found pieces.
61 Ninth Avenue
Located in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, 61 Ninth Avenue is a new office building articulated with multiple setback terraces and a floor-to-ceiling glass façade that is integrated within a modular frame that organizes the massing of the structure. The stacked cube-like curtain wall modules are arranged in a different configuration on each floor, creating unique interiors and a varied exterior. The flexibility in the design of 61 Ninth Avenue responds to a particular market demand of the Meatpacking District, where offices are often housed in converted industrial spaces. The inherent character of these large manufacturing spaces is that they provide large open spaces with generous ceiling heights in contrast to center core high-rise office towers commonly seen in Midtown and other neighborhoods of Manhattan. This building provides nearly 13,900 square metres of commercial space in three levels of retail and seven levels of office space. The core is located on one side of the building rather than in the center in order to achieve flexible, open floor plans that can be fit out to accommodate a variety of tenant needs. The pocket parks transform the typical office, conference room, and break out area into an integrated indoor-outdoor environment. The pocket parks can be utilized for various private and public functions, such as a private terrace for a corner office, or a communal space for an office function.
LX Pavillion
On a sloping estate in Bedford, NY, the LX Pavilion stands at the intersection of minimal and cerebral, of material and space: dualities emanating from the Richard Serra sculpture within. Unlike the temporary indoor gallery installation where the London Cross (2014) was first shown, the design team was tasked to create a permanent home for Serra’s sculpture composed of two fifteen- ton weathering- steel plates measuring 40’ long, 7’ tall and 2- 1/2” thick. Balanced on its edge, the lower steel plate runs diagonally between two corners of the room, while its counterpart, perched atop with a point load at midpoint and running perpendicular to it, is held in place by the specially constructed hydrated- lime wall partition resisting only the plate's rail loads. The lower plate defines a plane that bisects the pavilion into two galleries, bringing an immediate awareness to the presence of the unseen side. Due to the mass and finish of the weathering- steel plates, the design mandated a carefully choreographed sequential dance between professional riggers and contractors to install the plates and the interior partitions during temperate weather to address temperature and RH control prior to commissioning the remotely located MEP system connected underground. Once complete, the pavilion interior spatially, figuratively and contractually became Serra’s “art piece.” On the exterior, a charred Accoya timber rainscreen wraps the facade shrouding the north facing skylights distributing soft indirect lighting into the gallery. In contrast to the preserved dark mill- scale of the steel plates, the facade was designed to naturally patina over time.
40 Tenth Ave
40 Tenth Avenue demonstrates how contemporary commercial buildings can be good neighbors and enhance dense urban conditions through meaningful consideration of their users and context. This mid-rise tower’s striking form, created by using solar angles to “carve” the allowable building envelope, was designed to benefit occupants and users of the adjacent High Line park by maximizing natural daylight, fresh air, and views for all. Revealing the architectural potential of a people-centered, analytical approach, 40 Tenth Avenue also offers a model for how inherited zoning codes can be updated to enable new buildings to improve dense neighborhoods and protect public space. New York City’s 1916 Zoning Resolution was the first of its kind when it was enacted to preserve the public’s right to sunshine and fresh air without explicitly limiting the height of the high-rise. To this day the city’s regulations require setbacks that typically produce stepped towers. The 40 Tenth Avenue site, however, defies the logic of this zoning. Located at the western edge of Lower Manhattan, between the Hudson River and the High Line, the critical public space the building should protect is not the unobstructed western street but this unusual inner-block park. Rather than accept the as-of-right zoning envelope, which would have put park users in shadow and cut off their views of the Hudson, the project received a setback waiver to support a design that amplifies the experience of the heavily used High Line To address the building’s unique site condition, which is adjacent to a public park at the center of a block that would not be protected by current zoning codes, the building’s mass is stacked toward the western edge, opening up space for a terrace on the eastern edge facing the park. This produces a building with narrow floorplates that offer 270-degree views and will be flooded with natural light. The southeast and northwest corners of the building are “carved away” according to the incident angles of the sun’s rays to maximize sunlight, fresh air, and river views for the park, while also allowing for private terraces on many of the office levels that are angled to provide views down to the park and up to the sky. Targeting LEED Gold, the tower features high-performance glass with very low reflectivity to allow clear, unobstructed views to and from the river and park. The glazing system is geometrically optimized into a pattern of three-dimensional facets that articulate the carved regions of the tower. Each facet consists of five panels which were fabricated and assembled off-site and shipped and installed as one unit. At the center of each facet, a large diamond-shaped panel tilts downward to dramatically capture direct overhead light for corner workspaces. The 145,474 sf and 199 ft tall, 12-story building features 27,000 sf of retail on the ground and first floor. These retail spaces open to the street and the High Line, connecting the building with the public activity of both. The office floors above, which feature an average area of 11,000 sf and generous floor-to-floor heights of 16 ft, consist of full-floor office interiors, with flexible floorplates easily reconfigured for different tenant types and uses. The building additionally supports 20,000 sf of outdoor space across eight different floors. This includes a 10,000-sf shared outdoor roof deck and an expansive 8,000-sf terrace on the second floor, both of which offer tenants a place to enjoy sun, fresh air, and sweeping views.
Prospect Point Park observation tower
Tower located in Niagara Falls, New York.
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Open in Atlas MapFrequently Asked Questions
How long does the New York architecture walking tour take?+
The self-guided walking tour covers approximately 953.5 km with 7 stops. Allow approximately 214 hours including 20 minutes of viewing time per building.
Is the New York architecture tour free?+
Yes, this is a completely free self-guided walking tour. You can view the route on the interactive map, export it to Google Maps for navigation, and explore at your own pace.
Do I need to book the New York architecture tour in advance?+
No booking is required — this is a self-guided tour that you can start at any time. All buildings can be viewed from the outside. For guided tours with expert commentary, we recommend checking GetYourGuide for local architecture tours.
What is the best time to do the New York architecture walking tour?+
Morning light (before 11am) is ideal for photography of building facades. Weekdays tend to be less crowded around commercial buildings. Allow a full half day for the complete tour.