Via 57 West by Bjarke Ingels Group: 2016 Best of Year Winner for Residential Lobby/Amenity
“An invitation to think differently about how we inhabit our future cities.” That’s how Bjarke Ingels describes his “court-scraper,” a whizzed-up blend of the 19th-century courtyard typology and a contemporary high-rise. In geometric terms rather than architectural ones, we’re talking about a hollowed-out tetrahedron.
There’s a garden in the middle of the 830,000-square-foot sloped wedge of 709 apartments. While one corner of the building soars to a 32-story point, like the prow of a majestic ship, Ingels kept the three corners closest to the Hudson River low. That configuration allows afternoon sun to filter deep into the garden in addition to giving most apartments clear sight lines to the water. The garden itself is Central Park in miniature, with proportions the same as the real one by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Tenants can stroll along a brick path that winds through birch trees before they give way to a sunbathing lawn. Inside, the common spaces boast a Scandi-industrial materials palette of white oak, blackened steel, and polished concrete. The game room’s ceiling slopes upward, toward courtyard-facing windows, to soak in daylight. Underneath the courtyard is the basketball court.
Project Team: Thomas Christoffersen; Beat Schenk; David Brown; Aleksander Tokarz; Alessandro Ronfini; Alessio Valmori; Alvaro Mendive; Benjamin Schulte; Birk Daugaard; Brandon Cook; Celine Jeanne; Christoffer Gotfredsen; Daniel Sundlin; Dominyka Mineikyte; Eivor Davidsen; Felicia Guldberg; Florian Oberschneider; Gabrielle Nadeau; Gül Ertekin; Ho Kyung Lee; Hongyi Jin; Julian Liang; Julianne Gola; Justyna Mydlak; Laura Youf; Lauren Turner; Lucian Racovitan; Marcella Martinez; Maria Nikolova; Maya Shopova; Mitesh Dixit; Nicklas A. Rasch; Ola Hariri; Riccardo Mariano; Sheela Maini Søgaard; So?ren Gru?nert; Steffan Heath; Stanley Lung; Tara Hagan; Thilani Rajarathna; Tiago Barros; Tyler Polich; Valentina Mele; Valerie Lechene; Xu Li; Yi Li; Aaron Hales; Brian Foster; Ivy Hume; Jenny Chang; Mina Rafiee; Rakel Karlsdottir; Thomas Fagan.