Manhattan Addition 2—Upper East Side Historic District
New York, NY
1979–80
This project, a multiple dwelling located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side Historic District, addresses its immediate urban context, in which buildings represent both the history of New York and the history of architecture. The site for this project is an 18x100-ft lot, located between a curtain-wall glass building by Philip Johnson—which interrupts the sequence of town houses of a traditional Upper East Side street—and a Neo-Gothic church on the corner of Park Avenue. A townhouse by Paul Rudolph, back to back with the new building, completes this unusual architectural cluster.
The intention of the project is to establish a dialogue between the new building, the Neo-Gothic church, and the neighboring buildings. The bowed facade of the first six floors of this thin tower functions as a hinge between the Neo-Gothic facade of the church and the flat plane of its steel and glass neighbor. The building is another element in the already complex juxtaposition defined by the existing buildings.
The upper half of the building has been designed as a slender tower to express a typical element of the architecture of New York. In its duplication of towers it transforms the reading of the slab into two campaniles, acting as the missing campanile of the adjacent Neo-Gothic church.
Two towers, while reminiscent of medieval Italian towers, also refer to a sliver building, a typical element of the New York skyline. In one single gesture the original and the new referent are synthesized.
This project demonstrates the potential of resurrecting a building type that has been patently dismissed without considering the possibility to create anew within the interstices of the urban fabric.
The 18,000 sf structure is composed of one-bedroom floor-through apartments and two-bedroom duplexes on the eight upper floors.
The building is designed in a dialogue with the characteristics of its context, both in its fenestration (curtain wall and double hung windows) and its materials (brick and stone).
The intention of the project is to establish a dialogue between the new building, the Neo-Gothic church, and the neighboring buildings. The bowed facade of the first six floors of this thin tower functions as a hinge between the Neo-Gothic facade of the church and the flat plane of its steel and glass neighbor. The building is another element in the already complex juxtaposition defined by the existing buildings.
The upper half of the building has been designed as a slender tower to express a typical element of the architecture of New York. In its duplication of towers it transforms the reading of the slab into two campaniles, acting as the missing campanile of the adjacent Neo-Gothic church.
Two towers, while reminiscent of medieval Italian towers, also refer to a sliver building, a typical element of the New York skyline. In one single gesture the original and the new referent are synthesized.
This project demonstrates the potential of resurrecting a building type that has been patently dismissed without considering the possibility to create anew within the interstices of the urban fabric.
The 18,000 sf structure is composed of one-bedroom floor-through apartments and two-bedroom duplexes on the eight upper floors.
The building is designed in a dialogue with the characteristics of its context, both in its fenestration (curtain wall and double hung windows) and its materials (brick and stone).