80 South Street Santiago Calatrava S.A. © David Sundberg/Esto

Santiago Calatrava Photo by Suzanne DeChillo/ tm ©

425 Fifth Avenue J Condominium Courtesy of & Gruzen Samton Associates

Michael Graves Photo by Taylor Photo

West 31st Street Dan Kaplan, FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS

26 NEW YORK LIVING Architects and the City by Steve Cutler

rchitects are becoming synonomous with more Winka Dubbeldam than their designs for their buildings — their Having lived and worked in since Asignatures mark the level of the lifestyle their the early 1990s, Dutch architect Winka Dubbeldam won designs represent, as well as make a statement about the recognition for her daring and beautiful design of The discerning taste of those who dwell within. Encouraged Greenwich Project, an 11-story glass-skinned building to break the mold, to produce something distinctive and at 497 Greenwich Street that folds itself atop an adjoin- uniquely valuable — something personal — architects ing restored six-story warehouse. “You don’t break with are creating showcases for design. history,” says Dubbeldam. “You integrate it.” Finally, America’s fi nest architects, once having to Dubbeldam’s fi rm, Archi-Tectonics, embraces ad- do their pioneering work in Paris or Berlin, are active vanced technology such as three-dimensional modeling on the New York City landscape. And, celebrated inter- software, which generates visuals to present to clients as national architects such as Santiago Calatrava, Enrique well as innovative and cost-cutting ways to manufacture Norton, Jean Nouvel are also adding their signatures to construction materials. new projects in the city as well. “The curtain wall at the Greenwich project is Following are some of the architects adding their a great example,” says Dubbeldam. “We developed signature styles to New York City today. the geometry and engineering of the bent glazing through a 3-D computer model. This curtain wall Santiago Calatrava had its aluminum mullions extruded in Hong Kong, Spanish-born, Zurich-based architect-engineer-art- its glass folded in Barcelona — and double glazed for ist Santiago Calatrava is most widely known for his in- energy efficiency — and its units assembled in Brook- novative, elaborately engineered open structures, such as lyn. The final installed costs were still lower than a the Stadelhofen Railway Station, Zurich, Switzerland; standard curtain wall!” the Alamillo Bridge and La Cartuja Viaduct, Seville, Dubbeldam’s largest project has been Maashaven Spain; Campo Volantin Footbridge, Bilbao, Spain; Al- Towers, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The project con- ameda Bridge and Underground Station, Valencia, sists of three 30-story towers and the renovation of a Spain; BCE Place Hall, Toronto, Canada; and the Ori- 75-year-old grain silo. Her latest projects in New York ente railway station in Lisbon. include a 10-story condominium on Vestry Street in Calatrava’s fi rst building in the was Tribeca and another on far West 20th Street. the expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2001. Recently, he has been selected to design the Symphony FXFOWLE Center for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Atlanta. This 27-year-old architectural, interior design, His New York City debut will include the World Trade planning and urban design fi rm based in New York Center Path Terminal and the magnifi cent 80 South City, FXFOWLE has produced a prodigious number Street, a condominium tower comprising ten 10,000- residential, institutional, and commercial buildings in square-foot, four-story, glass-walled townhouses stacked the New York area, including the Durst Conde Nast on opposing sides of a massive concrete column. building at Four Times Square. Of the climate for design in New York City today, The fi rm is a pioneer in environmentally responsible Calatrava observes: “The public is much more keenly architecture. The Helena, a 37-story rental building at the aware of the possibilities of contemporary architecture, western end of West 57th Street, is the fi rst voluntarily sus- and much more inclined to demand something beauti- tainable high-rise residential building in the city, awarded ful, imaginative, inspiring. Of course, when it comes the AIA Green Affordable Housing Award in 2005. time to defi ne ‘beautiful, imaginative, inspiring,’ people “It is wonderful to be part of our city’s great leap disagree! But that, too, is encouraging. Debate helps ar- forward in the quality of residential buildings,” says chitecture. What harms architecture is indifference.” architect Dan Kaplan, head of the FXFOWLE resi-

NEW YORK LIVING 27 dential studio. “For too long New Yorkers had only Gruzen Samton two choices: well-loved but rather stodgy prewar One of the most comprehensive and longest-estab- buildings and mediocre, commodity-type new pro- lished architectural practices in the New York/New Jer- duction. Now there is a blossoming of aspirations. sey metropolitan area, this 140-person fi rm, formed in “A great example is the use of glass, truly the 1936, has produced a broad range of architectural, plan- material of our time. Its mutability and transparency ning, and interior design work. Their residential port- allows towers to be light on their feet, and wonderful folio includes TriBeCa Pointe, the tallest tower on the to live in. It is, however, quite possible to have too northern edge of Battery Park City; Parc Place, 22 River much of a good thing. With all of that light entering Terrace, and The Regatta at Battery Park City; and the the building, and the glare and heat that comes with Roosevelt Island Southtown Buildings. it, a means of control is desirable. This is the next “Architecture has become conversation,” according big issue. Our recent work features projecting fins, to Michael Gelfand, head of Gruzen Samton’s residen- balconies, shading devices, and sun breakers, called tial studio. “For the fi rst time in a long time, people in bris-soliel, which temper the effects of sunlight and the city are talking about architecture. On one hand this enrich the architecture. This design strategy also has has relegated architecture to the trendy whims of fash- the very necessary design benefit of reducing energy ion, but the more universal awareness of architecture in consumption. It’s good for the wallet and good for the general has created a higher level of sophistication and environment.” expectation from the clients. Buildings are no longer be- FXFOWLE buildings under construction in- ing designed to the most broad general market but are clude: The Sky House, 11 East 29th Street, a 55-story specifi cally designed and tailored to a lifestyle. The spec- glass and brick condominium with 130 luxury apart- ifi city of the marketing of these building have allowed ments; The Mosaic, a complex on West 52nd Street for a heightened level of design to create the imagery and Tenth Avenue, with two green-design 300-unit that reinforces this lifestyle.” apartment towers, two theater spaces, and a public Gruzen Samton’s newest projects include the con- plaza; and a mammoth Durst project on West 31st version of historic 20 Pine into a luxury 409-unit con- Street that will include a 460-unit luxury residential dominium in collaboration with Armani/Casa Interior tower, a facility for the adjacent St. Francis of Assisi Design Studio. They are also designing the 33-story J Friary, and the new headquarters for the American Condominium, a glass tower at 100 Jay Street in Brook- Cancer Society. lyn, the tallest building in historic low rise Dumbo, “a sort of beacon or lighthouse for that part of Brooklyn,” Michael Graves says Gelfand. A member of the celebrated Modernist “New York Five” architects, Michael Graves’ recent high-rise resi- Charles Gwathmey dential buildings revisit values of elegance and gracious One of the architects identifi ed as the New York comfort, bringing a modern interpretation to the tradi- Five in an exhibit at MOMA in 1969, Gwathmey is tional classic form. perhaps best know for his restoration and expansion of While his firm, Michael Graves & Associates, ’s Guggenheim Museum. Partnered has designed more than 100 buildings, it has re- with Robert Siegel since 1971, he brings an American turned only recently to New York City residential sensibility to International Style, combining 19th-cen- building. The Impala at 404 East 76th Street, built tury brickwork and American wood construction with in 1998, and 425 Fifth Avenue, completed in 2003, the Modern industrial building, to create sleek, unar- are their first residential towers since the Sotheby’s ticulated surfaces. Tower in 1985. While they’ve done numerous private residences, Of his approach to design, Graves comments, “We Gwathmey Siegel Architect’s first residential tower describe our work as fi gurative architecture. We believe was , a stunning asymmetrical 21-story that people make natural associations with forms, colors, glass tower featuring 39 loft condominiums with materials, and the organization of plans. Forms that are panoramic views that opened last year. At roughly the familiar and accessible can convey meaning because we same time, the firm produced the designer-branded associate with them. Windsor Park by Gwathmey Siegel, a conversion of “The play of familiar, evocative elements,” says the former Helmsley Windsor Hotel at 58th Street Graves, “counterbalances the modern preference for and Sixth Avenue into 103 condominium apartments. geometric abstraction. But we don’t think that the fi gu- Of the two spectacular double-height penthouses rative and abstract are mutually exclusive. In fact, our newly constructed on the roof of Windsor Park, said design goals are to create familiar, fi gurative forms while Gwathmey, “It was like building one of our houses also drawing on the lessons of modern composition.” on the roof.”

28 NEW YORK LIVING Astor Place Robert Siegel and Gwathmey Siegel & Charles Gwathmey Associates Architects Photo by Ann Simkins

Costas Kondylis 200 Chambers Street 497 Greenwich Street Costas Kondylis Winka Dubbeldam

4 West 21st Street Urban Glass House Hugh Hardy Philip Johnson/Alan Ritchie

Hugh Hardy

NEW YORK LIVING 29 The Post Toscana Peter Marino 170 East End Avenue Ismael Leyva Photo by Peter Marino Vincent Knapp

Ismael Leyva

Gwathmey is currently designing 123 Washing- tures on a street of lofts, we ensured 4 West 21st Street ton Street, a 53-story luxury hotel/condominium in the complements its neighbors. At the same time, using an Financial District with a 220-room W Hotel and 180 offset pattern of infi ll bay windows, we have provided residential apartments, for developer Joe Moinian. some contemporary verve that identifi es this as a pres- ent-day structure.” Hugh Hardy Founder of H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, Philip Johnson/Alan Ritchie Hardy is known for design of distinctive new buildings, Legendary architect Philip Johnson was a leader restoration of historic structures, and planning projects in the Modern movement and later played a seminal for the public realm. Among his most celebrated proj- role in the introduction of postmodernism and decon- ects are: the New York Botanical Garden Leon Levy structivism. While Johnson died last year at the age of Visitor Center in the Bronx; reconstruction of the Base- 98, the New York-based fi rm he established more than ball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New 50 years ago continues to produce innovative design York; restoration of the façade of the Brooklyn Acade- under the leadership of Johnson’s longtime partner, my of Music; restoration of Radio City Music Hall; and Alan Ritchie. the redesign of Bryant Park. The firm is known for such distinguished build- Current projects include a new home for the The- ings as the AT&T Headquarters, the Lipstick Build- atre for a New Audience in collaboration with Frank ing, Trump International, and the Williams Tower Gehry in Brooklyn; 4 West 21st Street, an amenity-rich in Houston, Texas. Their residential towers in New 18-story luxury loft condominium with 56 units; and a York City include four buildings in Riverside South; 30-story residential tower at 239 East 74th Street. the Metropolitan, a 30-story luxury condominium at Of the design of 4 West 21st Street, Hardy says: 181 East 90th Street; and most recently, the Urban “High-rise residential buildings should respond to Glass House at 328 Spring Street, an urban reinter- their neighborhood context. Depending on the type of pretation of Johnson’s famous Glass House in New neighbors, this response could represent a contrast or a Canaan, Connecticut. The 12-story Hudson Square continuation. Clarity of form is essential. By designing condominium offers 40 apartments designed by An- a loft-like framework that complements existing struc- nabelle Selldorf.

30 NEW YORK LIVING The fi rm is at work on a 20-story residential build- Leyva. “The whole design of the building is conceived ing on East 44th Street in Manhattan; the Pennsylvania with references to this meaningful word. The Asian- Academy of Music in Lancaster; and the Virginia Beach inspired residential lobby on the ground fl oor opens Performing Arts Center. to an outdoor garden sanctuary, a Zen-like refl ection garden with a cascading waterfall and a eucalyptus- Costas Kondylis infused sauna. Each of the 72 residential units features Costas Kondylis might be the architect most re- high ceilings, windowed walls, mahogany fl oors, and sponsible for the way New York City looks and lives interior detailing in stone, marble, and onyx. today. His portfolio of more than 70 mostly residen- “My approach to design is to shape the build- tial projects include: Trump World Tower; Trump ings in order to maximize the usable space and views International Hotel and Tower; Morton Square; where function and form work in a practical, effi cient, River Place II at 600 West 42nd Street; The Grand sensual, and assertive way.” Tier at 1930 Broadway; and Tower 31 at 9 West 31st Street. Peter Marino His current projects include the Plaza Hotel Since founding his fi rm in 1978, Marino’s design restoration, Building O at 33 West End Avenue, 627 contributions in the areas of commercial, cultural, res- West 42nd Street, 200 Chambers Street, 188 Ludlow, idential, and retail architecture have helped redefi ne The Link at 310 West 52nd Street, 985 Park Avenue, modern luxury worldwide, emphasizing materiality, and 45 Park Avenue. ”Every time I take a project, I texture, scale, and light. He is widely known for his try to give it the best design for the location, for the residential and retail designs for many of the most fa- purpose,” says Kondylis. “I don’t try to put my per- mous names in the fashion and art worlds: Fendi, Ar- sonal stamp on it, to have it be recognizable as a Kon- mani, Warhol, Valentino, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton. dylis building.” But, he adds, “People come back and Recent projects include Fendi fl agships in Rome and say, ‘Oh, no, we recognize your buildings.’ Somebody New York; Chanel buildings in Tokyo, Osaka, Hong once said of me, ‘Costas is the fellow who puts a po- Kong, Paris, and New York; Louis Vuitton fl agships lite façade on some of the most aggressive buildings in Paris and Hong Kong; and the Nassau County Mu- in New York City.’” seum of Art in New York. Kondylis is optimistic about the future of design Marino’s signature now appears on a luxury con- in New York City: “We’re going through a new re- dominium, the 20-story 170 East End Avenue, featur- naissance in Manhattan. The City Beautiful idea has ing 110 mostly three- to fi ve-bedroom apartments, been revived. There is a grand plan, like in Paris ranging from 1,750 to 4,925 square feet. Of the proj- with its boulevards. The city is back into planning ect, which has views of Carl Shurz Park and the East urbanistic beauty.” River, Marino says: “I wanted the water, the refl ected light, and the Ismael Leyva park’s landscape to penetrate the building, while com- From the opulent luxury apartments in the sky plementing the area’s prewar classicism. Two stone at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle to and glass structures ascend skyward, bridged by a the cutting-edge loft spaces at River Lofts in TriBeCa, glass sheath that refl ects the shimmering water, light, Leyva has produced innovative and eminently liv- and landscape. The water imagery fl ows through the able apartment layouts that have enhanced buildings lobby in waves of horizontally striated Italian marble, designed by Robert A. M. Stern, Charles Gwathmey, reemerging in the courtyard garden, where it meets David Childs, Costas Kondylis, and Philippe Starck. a glistening wall of water. My design is the logical His elegantly effi cient apartment concepts help sell coda to river views that zoom past the bridges over the buildings quickly, making him one of the most sought Long Island Sound and out to sea.” after interior architects in the city. The Post Toscana, a 31-story, 199-unit luxury rental building at 389 East 89th Street, was a break- An iconic fi gure for more than 40 years, Meier has through project for Leyva: his design was used for designed landmark private and public buildings all over both the interior and exterior. A new building de- the world. In 1965 his design of the Smith House in signed entirely by Leyva is Sundari Lofts & Tower at Darien, Connecticut, brought him instant celebrity at 158 Madison Avenue, which features two glass towers the age of 31 (before the day of the signature architect) with full-fl oor residences and a six-story building with and wide recognition for a distinctive style that would two garden townhouses and six penthouses. infl uence generations of architects. “The name of the building is inspired by the San- Richard Meier’s fi rst contribution to New York City skrit word sundari, which translates to ‘beautiful,’” says architecture in nearly 40 years, two glass towers on Per-

NEW YORK LIVING 31 ry Street and, more recently, 165 Charles Street, have more, the Lyric, TriBeCa Tower, and the new 455 Cen- revitalized the far West Village waterfront. “The light tral Park West. He designed all the interiors for the new is unique off the river,” he says, “and the openness we One Carnegie Hill, on East 96th Street, and both the in- have at the buildings, which are transparent and light, side and exterior of The Tate, a luxury rental building are particularly appropriate to this area. The greatest that opened in 2003. luxuries in New York City are space and light.” Rockwell is currently at work on the restoration Meier’s next project in the city, a 15-story luxury of a 1841 landmark, the Octagon at Roosevelt Island, condominium on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, which will house a 500-unit luxury rental building as should have a similarly revitalizing effect on its Pros- well as a new facility for the Film Society at Lincoln pect Heights neighborhood. Center. Meier’s commissions in the United States and Rockwell’s designs are elegant, dramatic, and Europe include courthouses, city halls, museums, cor- playful. In a word, theatrical. Indeed, says Rockwell, porate headquarters, housing, and private residences. “In theater, the curtain comes up, a performer comes Some of his best-known projects include The Getty on stage and tells you about the world they come from. Center in Los Angeles, the High Museum in Atlanta, That entrance is pregnant with possibility. In archi- the Frankfurt Museum for Decorative Arts in Germa- tecture, when you go into, say, Radio City Music Hall ny, the Canal Plus Television Headquarters in Paris, and make your entrance, it’s as choreographed as any the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, The stage movement. There’s a lower entrance space, then Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, and the Atheneum you come through a soaring space, you walk up the in New Harmony, Indiana. stairs and you feel your posture change as you go up the stairs. The entrance is an element we’ve used in all Jean Nouvel of our work.” The much-honored French architect Jean Nou- vel creates buildings defined by their shimmering Philippe Starck transparency, distinctive play of light and color, and A phenomenally popular French designer of poetic use of modern technology. Presenting him products, Starck first became famous for his inte- with the prestigious Gold Award in 2001, the Royal riors when he designed the private apartments of Institute of British Architects said, “His work shines President Mitterrand in 1982. He went on to design through as having both clarity and finesse, originality world-class restaurants and hotels, including the and lyricism.” Some notable works include: Commer- Royalton in New York City in 1988 and the Para- cial Centre Euralille, Lille; Fondation Cartier, Paris; mount in 1990. Galeries Lafayette, Berlin; and L’Institut du Monde Starck, the designer and the brand, is all over the Arabe in Paris. new Downtown by Philippe Starck, a 382-unit luxury Nouvel’s New York City debut is 40 Mercer, an ul- condominium conversion at 15 Broad Street: in the tra luxury condominium in SoHo developed by hotelier apartment layouts; in the kitchen faucets, garbage Andre Balazs. Aside from its boldly modern glass and disposal, and toilet; in the lap pool and bowling ally; steel design by Nouvel, the building is famous for two in the furnishings. Starck has assembled a catalog of penthouses with 2,250-square-foot terraces with out- 312 suggestions for furniture and lighting, arranged door swimming pools. by style packages, available for delivery the day after Balazs chose Nouvel for the design of a contem- closing. porary building in an historic, gritty warehouse neigh- borhood because, he says, “Jean was the only architect Robert A.M. Stern in my mind who has this kind of muscular modernist “This is a walking city,” observes Robert A.M. vocabulary, and he is someone who works in a highly Stern, “a big art gallery of architecture.” contextual way.” While he is dean of the School of Architecture at Yale, Stern maintains an offi ce in New York City, where David Rockwell he has designed campus additions and new buildings for The Rockwell Group, whose 160-member team op- and towers for Union Theologi- erates out of a Union Square studio, has designed more cal Seminary, Manhattan School of Music, and Brooklyn than 200 wildly varied projects around the country, in- Law School. cluding numerous restaurants, hotels, retail outlets, the- Stern’s large-scale residential buildings in New aters, and even Broadway show sets. York include TriBeCa Park at Battery Park City; The Rockwell’s contribution to residential projects in Chatham, 161 East 65th Street; the Seville, 171 East 77th New York City has been primarily to their interiors, Street; and the Westminster, 180 West 20th Street. Most most famously, their lobbies, in buildings like the Saga- recently, Stern designed Fifteen Central Park West, the

32 NEW YORK LIVING Jean Nouvel 40 Mercer Jean Nouvel

The lobby at 40 Mercer

165 Charles Street Inside the Tate. Richard Meier Courtesy of the Rockwell Group

Richard Meier Photo by Luca Vignelli

Philippe Starck Downtown David Rockwell Philippe Starck Courtesy of the Image by The 7th Art Rockwell Group

NEW YORK LIVING 33 Robert A.M. Stern One Central Park West River Lofts Photo by William Taylor Robert A.M. Stern Tsao & McKown Photo by Jen Fong

Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown

luxury condominium to be constructed on the site of the the world. As architects, we are also social and cultural former Mayfl ower Hotel on an entire block running be- cartographers and we can now develop ideas based on tween 61st and 62nd Streets and Broadway and Central what we chart in this particular moment in time. This, Park West, which, he says, “is the last signifi cant avail- I fi nd, is enormously encouraging.” able site likely for a generation — maybe forever — on In New York City, the fi rm’s designs include 15 Central Park West.” Williams Street, a 45-story condominium-hotel for “Being an architect is a great privilege,” says Stern. Andre Balazs; interiors and all furnishings for the “No matter where I go I can always fi nd something to TriBeCa Grand Hotel; and Balazs’s Mercer Hotel. look at and learn from and enjoy.” New projects include the conversion of the landmark Woolworth building tower into condominium apart- Tsao & McKown ments and River Lofts, a new 13-story residential Since its founding in New York in 1985, the ar- tower along with the restoration of a late-19th century chitecture/design practice of Calvin Tsao and Zack warehouse and a connecting gallery linking the two McKown has been broad-based both geographically structures. and in the breadth of its work, which ranges from lux- Its most celebrated new project is the renovation ury hotels and urban-development projects to high- of historic 55 Wall Street into a luxury condomin- end residences and product design. ium with four-star hotel-type services for the Cipri- “The way people need to or want to live has ani Company. The nine-story building will offer 107 evolved to a point that we as designers can actually ex- studio, one-, and two-bedroom condominium apart- plore new paradigms,” says Tsao, “participating pro- ments, priced from $785,000 to over $3 million. Tsao actively in this cultural evolution. And New York City & McKown also created three optional furniture pack- is in the vanguard of this and is the lab for the rest of ages for the apartments. n

34 NEW YORK LIVING