East Side Coastal Resiliency Project
BIG · Lower East Side · 2025
Construction is progressing on the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, where the first of three new pedestrian bridges to span the FDR highway has been lifted into place. Situated adjacent to the Williamsburg Bridge at Delancey Street, the BIG designed steel bridge will allow for pedestrians to access the renovated waterfront park that will help protect Lower Manhattan from future flooding.
Architect: Bjarke Ingels Group; Landscape Architect: Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects; Program: Park; Location: Lower East Side, New York, NY; Completion: 2025.
Tour: Pier 55 - Little Island
Heatherwick Studio’s park, known as Little Island, at Pier 55 in Hudson River Park has officially opened. Located near the Meatpacking District and the High Line, the design of the 2.4 acre park features an undulating field of 132 pots with plantings sitting on 280 concrete piles. At the park’s peak, the pots rise 30 feet into the air and can weigh more than 90 tons. Four to six petals of lightweight concrete combine to form each of the pots. MNLA led the landscape design, which is inspired by the textures and colors of coastal Acadia National Park in Maine. The park offers a 700-seat amphitheater for music, dance, and theater productions, along with numerous pathways and viewing platforms.
Architect: Heatherwick Studio; Landscape Architect: Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architect; Client: Hudson River Park; Program: park; Location: Meatpacking District, New York, NY; Completion: 2021.
Tour: Waterline Square
Construction has wrapped up at Waterline Square, the three-tower development on the Upper West Side from GID Development Group. The development's three sites are the last available of the original 5-tower Riverside Center masterplan. Each of the three towers are designed by a different high profile architecture firm and offer rentals at the lower floors and condos starting on floor 20. Sales for the one-to-five-bedroom condo units are ongoing.
Tower One, located at the southwest corner, is designed by Richard Meier Architects. Tower Two, at the northwest corner, is designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Tower Three, adjacent to the One West End tower, is designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects.
All three towers offer access to the Waterline Club, a combined 100,000 square feet of sports, leisure, and lifestyle amenities designed by the Rockwell Group. Amenities on offer include an indoor tennis court, an indoor skate park, a 30-foot indoor rock climbing wall, a full basketball court, a three-lane lap pool, and studios for art, photography, and recording. Also included in the development is a three acre landscaped park designed by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects at the center of the site.
One Waterline Square (10 Riverside Boulevard)
One Waterline Square
Richard Meier Architects
Located at the corner of West 59th Street and 12th Avenue, the Richard Meier Architects designed One Waterline Square stands 37-stories tall at the southwest corner of the development. Condo interiors are designed by Champalimaud Design.
Model Residence - Unit 03
Model Residence - Unit 07
Model Residence
Two Waterline Square
Kohn Pedersen Fox
Two Waterline Square (30 Riverside Boulevard)
The largest of the three towers, Two Waterline Square occupies the entire northern half of the development and stands 38-stories tall. Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates is the architect for the tower with condo interiors by Yabu Pushelberg.
Southeast corner of Two Waterline Square.
Model Residence
Model Rental Residence
Model Residence
Three Waterline Square
Rafael Vinoly Architects
Three Waterline Square (635 West 59th Street)
The third and final tower fronts onto West 59th Street and stands 34-stories tall. Rafael Vinoly Architects is responsible for the design with condo interiors by Groves & Co.
Three Waterline Square - Penthouse 2
Three Waterline Square - Model Rental Residence 808
Architects: Richard Meier & Partners Architects (Design Architect: One Waterline Square), Kohn Pedersen Fox (Design Architect: Two Waterline Square), Rafael Vinoly Architects (Design Architect: Three Waterline Square), Hill West Architects (Executive Architect); Interiors: Champalimaud Design (One Waterline Square), Yabu Pushelberg (Two Waterline Square), Groves & Co. (Three Waterline Square); Developer: GID Development Group; Program: Residential, Retail; Location: Upper West Side, New York, NY; Completion: 2020.
Whitney Museum of American Art
Ungainly and awkward, the Whitney's $422 million, 220,000-square-foot new home asserts its presence at the High Line's southern edge. Renzo Piano's addition to the Meatpacking neighborhood is indicative of the district's decade-long transformation from working class industrial to trendy tourist destination. What started in the previous decade with the conversion of unused elevated train tracks into the High Line elevated park, has culminated in a major new museum for the city in a neighborhood now dominated by buildings from an elite group of architects.
The Whitney Museum of American Art, begun with a collection of artwork amassed by Gertrude Whitney in 1908, has called several places home in its first century of existence. Most recently the museum was located on the Upper East Side, in a building designed by Marcel Breuer in 1966, at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 75th Street. Breuer's building, with its stone clad, inverted ziggurat form, was also considered at its opening to be awkward and panned for its unusual massing. With time, the building gained acceptance but was never able to adequately hold the museum's vast collection.
The Whitney Museum by Marcel Breuer, 1966.
Many attempts were made to expand the museum at its Upper East Side location, with designs from Norman Foster, Michael Graves, OMA, and finally Renzo Piano. Given the scale of the neighborhood and the historic value of buildings on site and adjacent, large scale expansion plans proved too contentious to realize.
With the advent of the High Line in 2009, properties that surrounded the park gained new value and the exodus of industrial businesses in the area left behind many sites ripe for new construction. Realizing the futility of its expansion plans at the Breuer building, the Whitney brokered a deal with the city of New York for a site at the southern entrance to the High Line and occupied by a meatpacking business. While the business has remained on the northern half of the massive site, the Whitney's deal with the city allows them to acquire the remaining half should the business relocate elsewhere.
Program study models.
Massing study models.
Presentation model of final design.
The Whitney Museum by Marcel Breuer, 1966.
Piano's building is arranged with gallery spaces and other public functions in the southern half, while offices for the museum's staff, education programs, and other support spaces occupy the northern half. At the primary public corner, where Gansevoort intersects Washington Street, the Whitney engages the public at both street level and the High Line as the building's form folds skyward at the corner of Gansevoort and Washington Street, creating a multi-story volume enclosed by vast expanses of glass. Piano uses this element in conjunction with the more solidly clad galleries cantilevered above to subtly invoke the Breuer building's iconic massing, a motif that will reoccur throughout. The folded facade also evokes Diller Scofidio + Renfro's overhaul of Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hull (renovated, 2009), where a double height entry is also formed by peeling up the building's original travertine facade. For the Whitney, this space houses Danny Meyer's latest restaurant, Untitled. Stretching along the restaurant's Gansevoort Street frontage, the open kitchen visually dominates the space. At night, the scene from the street is reminiscent of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, with the patrons spread out along the bar and the glow of Robert Indiana's illuminated word "EAT" artwork hanging above.
Southeast corner of the Whitney (left) and the southern entrance to the High Line (right).
Untitled restaurant from Gansevoort Street.
Restaurant entrance off of Gansevoort Street.
View of the restaurant bar from Gansevoort Street.
Main museum entrance from Gansevoort Street.
View of the museum shop at the southwest corner from Gansevoort Street.
Museum visitors enter mid-block off of Gansevoort Street into a glass enclosed 6,000 square-foot lobby that is adjacent to a free gallery and a museum shop consisting of open shelving to maintain visual porosity. Galleries on the upper floors can be accessed by a grand stair or by one of four elevators, featuring commissioned artwork in the elevator cab by the artist Richard Artschwager. Glazing above the elevator entry at ground level allows the visitor to see the machinery needed to operate, continuing an oft used theme by Piano. The concrete and steel of the stair serves as another subtle reference to the Breuer building.
Main museum entrance from Gansevoort Street.
Museum lobby.
Museum shop shelving.
Special exhibitions are housed on the eighth floor, which currently features "America is Hard to See." The show serves as a means for the Whitney to reexamine American art since 1900 with works from their vast collection that has long gone unseen. The galleries at this level feature the typical white walls and reclaimed wide-plank pine flooring found throughout the museum. Because of its top floor location, Piano has designed the ceilings as a grid work that allows in light from the sawtooth skylights, resulting in a much brighter and inviting environment to wander the galleries than the Breuer building. There, the dark tones of the stone flooring and the concrete waffle ceiling gave the galleries a heavy and dark atmosphere. Although Piano's galleries are a sharp turn from the previous aesthetic, he continually references the Breuer ceilings with the varying take on grids created at each level of galleries. On some floors the ceiling grid is present but solid while other floors reveal the conduit and ductwork of necessary services in a modern building, a muted and vertical take on Piano's first museum, the Pompidou.
On floors six and seven reside the permanent collection galleries in spaces unmatched by their previous home. Now visitors can peruse the work in vast spaces that give the pieces enough real estate to stand on their own but still create a dialogue with adjacent works. With the added space comes spectacular moments of rest and reflection, where visitors can sit at one of two large walls of glass and take in the High Line in the morning light from the east facade or the setting sun from the west facade's window. Moments of connection to the surrounding neighborhood can even be experienced while in the midst of perusing the galleries, as slots of space cut through gallery walls leading to the facade's glazing.
Not to be outdone, the 13,000-square-feet of outdoor galleries and terraces provide additional opportunities to pause and reflect. Views of the city skyline serve as a backdrop to outdoor cafe seating and several large sculptures. On the fifth floor outdoor gallery, the Whitney has commissioned a site specific work by Mary Heilmann, Mary Heilmann: Sunset, which features colorful chairs scattered about the terrace that visitors can use. Also included is a projected film and panels of colorful shapes that mimic the stepping of the building's terraces.
At the northern half of the building, Piano has located the support space for the Whitney's staff, which has grown steadily in recent years. Like the galleries, these spaces are generous in size and provide ample light and views to the neighborhood.
With the opening of the Whitney, the city has gained another spectacular cultural destination. Yes, it's exterior is a quirky wrapper, more muscle than beauty, but the interior more than compensates with its spot on take on the contemporary museum. Piano expertly crafts a museum that accommodates the visitor with the right mix of galleries and leisure space, allowing the museum to coexist with, rather than be consumed by, the commercial program of contemporary institutions. Like the Breuer building, Piano's structure will likely be embraced by most over time, as visitors forgive its exterior clumsiness for the expertly crafted experience within.
Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Design Architect), Cooper Robertson (Executive Architect); Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates: MEP Engineer: Jaros, Baum & Bolles; Facade Consultant: Heintges; Landscape Architect: Piet Oudolf with Mathews Nielson Landscape Architect; General Contractor: Turner Construction; Client: Whitney Museum of American Art; Program: Museum; Location: Meatpacking District, New York, NY; Completion: 2015.