Rafael Viñoly The Art of Looking ARCHITECT OF 277 FIFTH AVENUE The first thing you notice is his glasses. One pair perches on his head. Three more dangle around his neck like necklaces. He explains that one pair is for distance; the second is for reading; the third is for looking at the computer; and the fourth is for playing the piano. He is someone who needs to be, in his words, “precise about what I need to look at.” He is wearing a dark blue blazer and a silk tie. He is energetic, tousled, and boyish—anything but formal. Even while sitting, he seems to be on the move. He acknowledges with a grin that although his glasses are functional, they are also distinct: a way for people to remember him. 9 VIÑOLY’S FOUR PAIRS OF GLASSES He is the rare architect who can shift perspective, view the world through different lenses, and maintain his focus. An architect is only as good as his vision. The glasses are also a metaphor for different styles and cultures of Upper and that “this kind of layout is very rare.” Each Rafael Viñoly’s life and work. In the course Lower Fifth Avenue. Viñoly then references residence has at least two exposures; some of his career, he has moved fluidly between the development of SoHo, which occurred in have three; and the building culminates in designing concert halls and airports, the late 1960s and early 1970s, when artists apartments with four full exposures, offering museums and residences. He has designed were looking for spaces they could afford expansive views from every side. “The luxury over 350 projects on five continents. to make their own. He sees that residential is in the height of the ceilings and the way growth and creative expansion in NoMad the windows have been treated,” Viñoly says. Viñoly brings this vision to 277 Fifth Avenue, now, and he is proud that 277 Fifth Avenue “These apartments are truly distinctive.” a building that combines New York will contribute to the neighborhood’s architectural sophistication, innovative style, transformation. He calls Fifth Avenue an 277 Fifth Avenue is an elegant, soaring tower and a modernist sensibility. “It’s a building “amazing promenade” that stretches from that takes full advantage of its commanding, that belongs to that portion of Fifth Avenue Central Park to the Empire State Building panoramic vistas. Jim Herr, the Partner at which is dominated by buildings from the to Washington Square Park, saying that Viñoly Architects who is managing the late 1930s and early 1940s. It retains respect “what makes Fifth Avenue is its ability 277 Fifth Avenue project, explains that for that kind of verticality, while not imitating to reinvent itself.” the vision for the building was to create a it,” Viñoly says. podium and then “float” the residences Viñoly’s philosophy is to design his buildings vertically. As a result, transparency, glass, This stylistic combination corresponds to respond to the special characteristics of and views are the defining characteristics perfectly to the building’s location. their sites. The 277 Fifth Avenue site has of the structure. “It is mid-position between two different a small footprint, one that gave Viñoly the kinds of perceptions of how you create a opportunity to design a building “with four Viñoly’s inspiration is derived from what he neighborhood,” Viñoly says, referring to the sides of exposures.” Viñoly emphasizes describes as a “corner condition” in each 11 “The most important characteristic of any great building is that it’s well proportioned.” RAFAEL VIÑOLY apartment. His innovation was to move the you get fascinated by this ‘wow’ factor. a person and his or her home. A longtime structure of the building to its exterior, thus That is something that passes in fifteen admirer of the 16th-century architect freeing space on the inside; Viñoly was able seconds,” he says. Instead, he strives to Andrea Palladio, who drew inspiration from to transform what would be a typical window design buildings that will timelessly endure. religious buildings for his Italian villas, Viñoly configuration into stunning floor-to-ceiling uses the glass walls and city views to evoke windowed walls. He leans back in his chair. “I have a strong urbanity and grace. “Architecture,” he once adherence to the notion of restraint. You can said, “should make you feel elegant.” While designing 277 Fifth Avenue, Viñoly scream; you can yell; but for better or worse, was conscious of the vital role that the buildings last longer than dresses—not Viñoly’s career as an architect was building would play in New York City’s that I have anything against dresses but not preordained, but it might have been skyline. He felt a sense of responsibility, architecture isn’t fashion. This is not six predicted; all the elements were there from a need to create a structure that would collections a year. For me, this is one the start. He was born in Uruguay to a influence architectural history and the building every seven years.” father, Román, who at the age of nine had beauty of New York City. Viñoly considers left home to join a traveling circus. Román 277 Fifth Avenue to be “something which is He leans forward, lifts one pair of glasses later became an accomplished theater far more important than any single building,” from around his neck, and contemplatively director before segueing into film production. noting its impact on the entire city. bends its arms back and forth. “The most Although he had no formal education, important characteristic of any great he spoke three languages, had an ear for One of Viñoly’s core beliefs is that architects building is that it’s well proportioned.” Wagner, and quoted Molière from memory. must remain aware of their work’s lasting Viñoly’s mother, María Beceiro, briefly studied effects. “One of the problems I see in Viñoly is a master of using proportion to architecture herself, but out of financial architecture today,” Viñoly muses, “is that create an emotional connection between necessity became a mathematics teacher. 12 PRIVATE CONCERT HALL LAGUNA GARZÓN BRIDGE CARRASCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FORUM VIÑOLY’S MONOGRAPH AT HIS STUDIO Viñoly brings this vision to 277 Fifth Avenue, a building that combines New York architectural sophistication, innovative style, and a modernist sensibility. VIÑOLY SKETCHING VIÑOLY’S SKETCH OF 277 FIFTH AVENUE One might imagine that Viñoly’s sense of At 18, Viñoly attended the School of implement his vision against the odds, space and his theatrical visual flair comes Architecture and Urbanism at the University and to connect his architectural concepts from his father, along with his productivity of Buenos Aires, having emigrated from to real-world practice. (his father produced 40 to 50 movies yearly). Uruguay to Argentina when he was four. From his mother, Viñoly acquired pragmatic There he steeped himself in the modernist A recent visit to his New York offices, housed numerical skills and a passion for modern tradition. His formative teachers were in a former meatpacking building, makes architecture (she was an avid reader of influenced by two of architectural history’s evident that intensity and determination Le Corbusier’s magazine L’Esprit Nouveau). greatest, Mies van der Rohe and Alvar Aalto. remain fundamental to Viñoly’s identity as The functional purity of 277 Fifth Avenue is an architect. In the hushed reception area, Surprisingly, Viñoly’s youth was not spent an expression of Viñoly’s early training. models of some of his most renowned at the drawing board but at the keyboard. buildings stand tall: the curvaceous Carrasco From a young age, he was an extremely While at university, Viñoly won his first International Airport in Montevideo, accomplished pianist. He played with a architectural competition for the design the punchy 121st Police Precinct Station nuance and dexterity that could have made of the school’s woodworking shop. Soon House in Staten Island, and the gracious him a world-famous performer. But his after, the Argentine military took over Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in father’s life made him wary of a career in the government. Troops stormed the Philadelphia. They are mounted on plinths the fine arts. Viñoly feared that becoming a architecture school and shot a classmate and illuminated from below, serene totems musician could mean “a dangerous life, with sitting beside him. Both events propelled to triumphant accomplishment. But upstairs, an enormous lack of structure,” and as a Viñoly out of the conceptual abstractions the office is anything but serene: it’s a result Viñoly experienced what he describes of architecture school and into the realities vast, bustling studio with 75 employees as a “vocational crisis.” He was torn between of building in the physical world. “When you sitting in front of enormous screens, their becoming an architect and becoming are in a situation where you have to find desks cluttered with granite samples, metal a concert pianist. And so Viñoly locked work in order to eat, where you can’t stay hinging mounts, building renderings, himself in a room for a week and emerged in the university because you are going to and caffeinated beverages. Viñoly’s studio determined to become an architect. He be shot, some things become completely is famous for demanding long hours. didn’t touch a piano for the next ten years. clear,” he says. He became determined to Unsurprisingly, a daytime buzzer rests above 17 ONE OF VIÑOLY’S GRAND PIANOS IN HIS STUDIO a dedicated nighttime buzzer by the studio’s front door. Look closely and you’ll see that the white plastic of the nighttime buzzer shows the wear of heavy use.