Nine Chapel
SO-IL · Downtown Brooklyn · 2024
Southwest corner from Jay Street.
Facade installation is nearing completion at Tankhouse’s residential tower at 9 Chapel Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Designed by SO-IL, the tower rises 158 feet and features a massing broken down into smaller blocks to achieve a more varied appearance and more variety in the residential organization than the zoning code typically produces. This is the second residential development that SO-IL has designed for developer Tankhouse, with the recently completed 450 Warren being the first.
South facade from Jay Street.
Designed by SO-IL in collaboration with Kane AUD and Laufs, the facade features undulating, perforated anodized aluminum panels that provide privacy at exterior living areas while allowing in light and air. Each home will offer significant private outdoor space ranging from 98 SF to 2,237 SF. The undulation of the panels is created by the rotation and mirroring of just three unique facade panels. A secondary exterior skin of precast concrete blocks mimic and complement the undulating form of the primary metal facade. Operable windows and glass doors are provided by Kleidco and designed for reduced energy consumption.
Close-up of the southwest corner from Jay Street.
Rendering of the residential entrance. Provided by Tankhouse.
Looking up at the west facade.
West facade from Jay Street.
Looking up at the northwest corner.
Looking up at the south facade from Chapel Street.
Northeast corner from Chapel Street.
Northwest corner from Jay Street.
North facade from Concord Street.
Close-up of the west facade.
Close-up of the west facade.
Close-up of the south facade.
Architects: SO-IL (Design Architect), Kane Architecture and Urban Design (Architect of Record); Structural Engineer: Silman; MEP Engineer: CES Engineering; Facade Consultant: LAUFS; Lighting Design: Lighting Workshop; Developer: Tankhouse; Program: Residential Condo; Location: Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY; Completion: 2024.
450 Warren
SO-IL · Boerum Hill · 2022
Northwest corner from Bond Street.
At the corner of Warren and Bond Street in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood, construction is nearing completion on an 18 unit condo building 450 Warren from Brooklyn-based developer Tankhouse. Led by partners Sam Alison-Mayne and Sebastian Mendez, the firm tapped Brooklyn based designers Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg of SO-IL to craft a building that promotes light, air, outdoor space, and privacy in a clustered massing.
Northwest corner.
Sustainability serves as a key design element of the project, influencing decisions from the outdoor spaces, exterior wall, and interiors. The exterior wall features a green-toned concrete block and large windows with operables that allow for natural ventilation. Along with private terraces, the project also features a central atrium and two courtyard gardens with native plants maintained by a passive irrigation system.
West facade from Bond Street.
Residents will also have access to amenities that include a coworking lounge, boutique gym, pet wash, bicycle storage, and onsite parking.
Close-up of the concrete block facade.
Southwest corner from Bond Street.
Southwest corner from Bond Street.
Residential entry.
Stairway at ground floor of the central atrium.
Looking up at the ground floor of the central atrium.
Stairway leading to the courtyard garden.
Courtyard garden.
Courtyard garden.
Design Architect: SO-IL; Architect of Record: Kane Architecture and Urban Design; Structural Engineer: Silman; MEPS Engineer: ABS Engineering; Landscape Design: Gowns Canal Conservancy and Brooklyn Grange; Developer: Tankhouse; Program: Residential Condo; Location: Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, NY; Completion: 2022.
Tour: Glenstone Museum
Glenstone, a private museum of contemporary art, is located on 230 acres of land in Potomac, Maryland. The museum was developed and financed by local billionaire Mitchell Rales, and opened to the public in 2006 under the curation of Emily Wei Rales. Glenstone is named for the nearby Glen Road and the areas stone quarries. The Gallery, a 30,000 square foot Modernist structure designed by Charles Gwathmey, housed the collection at the museum’s 2006 opening. In 2010, Thomas Phifer was awarded a commission to design the five fold expansion of the museum after a two stage competition. Phifer, who had previously worked for Gwathmey and fellow New York Five Architect Richard Meier, is known for numerous museums and civic buildings.
Arrival Hall
Upon entering the grounds of the museum property, visitors drive to the Parking Grove. An adjacent Arrival Hall offers information and a book store. Alaskan yellow cedar, a soft wood chosen for its complementary tone to the concrete of the pavilions, clads the exterior of the Arrival Hall. Inside, the spaces are clad in a maple wood.
Detail of the maple wall, flooring, and bench.
Bookstore.
Pavilions
The pavilions are situated in a meadow of undulating topography that denies the visitor a clear view of all twelve structures as you follow the winding path to their entrance. Phifer’s site strategy is inspired in part by the dry garden at Ryoan-ji that features fifteen stones in a rectangular gravel field seen from a platform. Visitor’s are never able to see all fifteen stones at the same time, embodying a meditation strategy that favors intuition over reason.
Phifer’s concept for the pavilions was to treat them as a series of rooms, with unique proportions tied to specific artwork, surrounding a water court. Pavilions are sited on the cardinal points to emphasize the changing natural light throughout the day.
Entry.
The cast-in-place concrete used at the pavilion interiors is an architectural concrete made with a mixture of pure white and common grey cement and locally quarried aggregate stones. Finnish plywood panels were used on the handmade formwork to produce a smooth finish for the exterior surface of the concrete. The resulting concrete has slight variations of color and visible lift lines from the removal of the formwork.
Room 1.
Twenty-six thousand precast concrete blocks, measuring six feet by one foot, clad the exterior and interior walls of the pavilions. Blocks were cast off site and vary based on weather conditions during casting and curing. Darker blocks were poured in winter due to temperature and the slower evaporation of water. Surface finish was even affected by removing the formwork in rain or sunny weather. Time will further the contrast of the blocks as they are further exposed to the elements.
Stair handrail detail.
Phifer has situated the twelve pavilions around an 18,000 square foot Water Court which can be viewed through large panels of glass. These German made panels are set in stainless steel mullions and reach heights up to thirty feet.
A platform made of Ipe wood and a teak bench allow visitors to sit and reflect outside in the Water Court. Plantings include water lilies, irises, rushes, cattails, and hardy canna.
Terrazzo made of granite is employed for the floors of the pavilions and complements the surrounding concrete and glass. Although typically polished to a high gloss, the Glenstone’s terrazzo has a matte finish and has a lighter than normal color due to the small aggregate used in the mix.
Room 7 features a monumental bench made of hickory and the largest glass panel in the pavilions, offering visitor’s a stunning view of the surrounding meadow. Maple clads the interior surfaces of the room.
Room 7.
Phifer has specified a plaster for the gallery walls that is made of Italian marble dust and a lime paste from the rocks of the Ticino River in Switzerland.
The clerestories in the pavilions are made of glass that has been acid-etched to produce a uniform and semitransparent surface. This process involves washing clear glass in a light acid bath, creating a smoother surface than sandblasting, to filter natural light entering a space.
Every detail is thoughtfully considered, even the accommodation of sprinkler heads and fire extinguishers.
Water fountains outside of the restrooms.
Located near the pavilions’ entrance, Michael Heizer’s Compression Line is surrounded by argillite, a sedimentary rock of hardened clay particles. This type of argillite comes from the southwest United States and resembles the rusted steel of the sculpture it surrounds. Another piece by Heizer, Collapse, is located in Room 5 and surrounded by the same argillite rock.
Compression Line by Michael Heizer.
Collapse by Michael Heizer.
The Gallery
Glenstone’s first art gallery was designed by the late Charles Gwathmey and opened in 2006. The exterior is clad in zinc and gray granite.
The Gallery (2006).
Sylvester by Richard Serra (2001).
Landscape
The nearly 300 acre landscape of Glenstone is designed by landscape architect Peter Walker and Partners and includes paths, trails, streams, meadows, forests, and outdoor sculptures.
Split-Rocker by Jeff Koons, 2000.
Sculpture in the surrounding landscape includes Jeff Koons’s Split-Rocker, 2000, which is planted each year in the spring with New Guinea Impatiens.
Split-Rocker before its spring planting.
Clay Houses (Boulder-Room-Holes) by Andy Goldsworthy, 2007.
Architects: Thomas Phifer and Partners (The Pavilions), Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects (The Gallery); Landscape Architect: Peter Walker and Partners; Client: Glenstone Museum; Program: Museum; Location: Potomac, Maryland; Completion: 2006 (The Gallery), 2018 (The Pavilions).