Hollwich Kushner Announces Skyler, a Prototype for Multigenerational Living

NYC’s Hollwich Kushner has conceptualized a skyscraper built for 1,000 residents that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of various ages. Called Skyler, the building would include nurseries, offices, business hubs for retirees, a ‘spiritual center’, and healthcare facilities for those who need medical assistance.

Firm co-founder Matthias Hollwich, SBA, spent seven years researching how architecture and design affect aging populations. “It has been the easy solution to say, ‘old people go here’ and young people go somewhere else,” he says. “That has been the architectural response to aging for the last hundred years.”

Instead of segregated communities and assisted living facilities, Skyler offers 600 residential units designed to accommodate 50 kids below the age of five, complete with in-house daycare centers; 500 working adults with shared transportation options to increase access to shopping and school drop-offs; and 150 seniors over the age of 65, along with what the plan calls a “business continuation center” for those “hardly ready to retire.” The building’s health center can help keep everyone healthy, regardless of age, but there is also room for infirmary for more specialized and serious care.

Architecturally, Skyler is a modern, sculptural take on the classic 1930s Gotham Art Deco style. It’s a building, he says, that’s “a place where people of all ages want to live. A place where generations commingle and the young invigorate the old, and the old mentor the young.”

Hollwich has also authored a book with Jennifer Krichels, called New Aging: Live Smarter Now to Live Better Forever, which explores the philosophy anchoring Skyler.

Renderings courtesy of Hollwich Kushner.