Featured Project
Vertical Manhattan

The skyscraper “56 Leonard Street” by Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron has created something in New York’s “Triangle Below Canal Street” neighborhood – Tribeca for short – that all those living in large cities long for: space for individuality. Conceived as a stack of individual houses, the extraordinary building method employed made it possible to construct balconies and jetties. Despite being completely glazed, the staggered cubes provide visual cover and privacy – yet without restricting their inhabitant’s magnificent view of Manhattan. The tower reaches the enormous height of 250 meters despite being built on a relatively small plot of land: making “56 Leonard Street” one of the highest apartment buildings in the US.

For the interior fixtures the architects chose custom-made kitchen and bathroom furnishings from Molteni Group’s Dada Contract Division, which reflect the building’s sculptural character. With their fluid shapes the glossy black kitchen blocks with granite countertops fit the layout of the space perfectly, while providing a large work surface without appearing too massy. The white cooker hood hovers above the imposing gas cooker and the black kitchen island like an oblate megaphone. The coolness of the smooth, minimalistic surfaces is ideally offset by the coziness of the wooden floors. Metallic surfaces provide elegant highlights in the rooms and make them appear larger. Herzog & de Meuron further chose washbasins by Dada with custom-made mirrored sliding doors for the bathrooms. (am)