20 and 30 Halletts Point
Handel Architects · Astoria · 2025
Southwest corner of 20 (left) and 30 (right) Halletts Point from the East River.
Exterior wall installation is nearing completion at The Durst Organization’s 20 and 30 Halletts Point residential development on the Astoria waterfront in Queens. The two-tower development is the second phase of a larger master plan by Durst that includes seven sites in the Halletts Point section of Astoria. When completed, the project will bring 647 residential units and a waterfront esplanade.
Southwest corner of 20 (left) and 30 (right) Halletts Point from the East River.
Designed by Handel Architects, the 27 and 32-story towers feature a curtain wall facade with dark blue green glass and white spandrel panels at the podiums.
South facade of 30 Halletts Point from the East River.
South facade of 30 Halletts Point from 1st Street.
South facade of 30 Halletts Point from 1st Street.
Looking up at the east facade of 30 Halletts Point.
Northeast corner of 20 Halletts Point from 26th Avenue.
North facade of 30 Halletts Point from the waterfront esplanade.
Looking east towards 10 Halletts Point from the connecting plaza between the two towers.
Southwest corner of 20 Halletts Point from the waterfront esplanade.
Looking down onto 20 Halletts Point, podium rooftop terraces, and the connecting plaza at the ground.
Looking down onto the podium rooftop terraces and the connecting plaza at the ground.
Looking down onto 30 Halletts Point, podium rooftop terraces, and the connecting plaza at the ground.
Looking south towards 30 Halletts Point and the Upper East Side.
Close-up of the curtain wall facade (right) and The Durst Organization's Sven residential tower in Long Island City, also by Handel Architects.
Close-up of the curtain wall facade.
Close-up of the curtain wall facade.
Rooftop Views
Looking south towards the Upper East Side and Midtown.
Looking south towards Roosevelt Island and the East River waterfront.
Looking southwest towards the Upper East Side.
Looking northwest towards East Harlem.
Looking southeast towards Long Island City.
Looking north towards 20 Halletts Point and Randalls Island.
A corner residence under construction with a west facing view towards the Upper East Side.
Architect: Handel Architects; Structural Engineer: Severud Associates; MEP Engineer: Jaros, Baum & Bolles; Facade Consultant: Socotec; Landscape Architect: Starr Whitehouse; General Contractor: UAG; Developer: The Durst Organization; Program: Residential Rental; Location: Astoria, Queens, NY; Completion: 2024.
Construction Update: 181 Mercer Street
Southeast corner from Houston Street.
Facade installation is ongoing at NYU’s 23-story mixed use building 181 Mercer at the northern edge of SoHo. Designed by KieranTimberlake and Davis Brody Bond, the full block structure features faculty and student housing, 58 classrooms, performing arts spaces including a 350-seat theater, a student commons space on the second floor, and athletic facilities at the base. Installation of the pleated glass curtain wall with glare reducing frit patterns is nearly finished at the podium and panels are going up on the towers.
Northeast corner.
Looking up at the south facade from Houston Street.
Southwest corner from Houston Street.
Close-up of the south podium facade.
Southwest corner from Houston Street.
Southwest corner from Houston Street.
West facade of 181 Mercer (right) and Picasso’s Bust of Sylvette (left) from NYU’s Silver Towers.
Architects: KieranTimberlake and Davis Brody Bond; Client: New York University (NYU); Program: Faculty and Student Housing, Classrooms, Performing Arts, Athletic Facility, and Commons; Location: SoHo, New York, NY; Completion: 2021.
Construction Update: 100 Vandam
Northwest corner from Greenwich Street.
Construction scaffolding is coming down at 100 Vandam, revealing the COOKFOX designed tower facade. The site at the corner of Vandam Street and Greenwich Street was once home to a coal power plant, whose masonry facade is being integrated into the residential conversion. A new tower has been constructed atop the 6-story existing building, bringing the total height of the project to 25-stories and 350 feet. Design of the tower facade includes panels at each slab edge that provide solar shading, balcony railings with custom designed patterns that are also present on the glass spandrel panels, and slab depressions throughout the tower perimeter for loggia gardens by Terrain NYC.
When completed, the Jeff Greene developed project will offer 70 residential condo units and 2,500 square feet of ground floor commercial space.
Looking up at the north facade.
Looking up at the northeast corner of the tower.
Detail of the north tower facade.
Northeast facade of the tower.
Detail of the northeast tower facade.
Detail of the north tower facade.
Looking up at the west facade from Greenwich Street.
Southwest corner from Greenwich Street.
Architect: COOKFOX Architects; Developer: Jeff Greene; Program: Residential; Location: Hudson Square, New York, NY; Completion: 2021.
Tour: Museum of Modern Art Renovation and Expansion
The Museum of Modern Art is ready for it’s reopening later this month, with expanded gallery space, renovations to existing entry and gallery spaces, and a new museum store.
Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler, the MoMA’s expansion occupies two sites to the west of the existing museum. Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects‘ Folk Art Museum occupied the first site from its completion in 2001 until demolition in 2014. The rest of the expansion is located in the base of the adjacent Jean Nouvel tower 53 West 53.
The museum’s main entrance is now marked by a large cantilevered metal canopy at West 53rd Street. Inside, the lobby ceiling height has been raised and the museum store has been relocated one floor below to open up views outward from the lobby. Ticketing desks have also been installed in new locations in the ground floor lobby.
A new blade stair serves as the circulation spine of the new gallery spaces in the west expansion. A solid six inch divider hangs from the roof structure to support the bead blast stainless steel panels and solid northern oak treads and risers. Glass balustrades are cantilevered off of the stair and held in place by pins. The walls of the stairway are clad in bird’s eye maple with acoustic micro-perforations. A separate blackened stainless steel stair at the sixth floor leads to the cafe.
The museum’s expansion includes 47,000 square feet of new and renovated gallery space. Along with the five floors of new gallery space in the west building, some of the galleries added in the Taniguchi expansion of 2004 have also been renovated and reconfigured.
Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler; Client: The Museum of Modern Art; Program: Museum; Location: Midtown, New York, NY; Completion: October 2019.
