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Between the international starchitects getting their first crack at New York's skyline and the new super tall high-rises springing up all over town, new New York skyscrapers aren't exactly big news, especially since most of them are glassy monuments to ho-hum. Every once in a while, though, you do get a distinctive building worth noting. Such is the case with a planned residential tower on William Street in the Financial District. It's the handiwork of David Adjaye—who is, yes, an international starchitect getting his first crack at New York's skyline.
Photograph: Courtesy David Adjaye Associates
The Brit is best known in this country for his design for The National Museum of African American History in Washington, D.C., and for the FiDi location, he's planned 66 stories of concrete goodness that departs from the prevalent architectural fashion for transparency, transparency and more transparency. And, instead of the typical rectangular openings, the windows will be arched, with the top ten floors of penthouses featuring something you don't often find at skyscraper altitudes: balconies.
Photograph: Courtesy David Adjaye Associates
Inside, it won't be too shabby either, with double-height ceilings for the apartments and a fab swimming pool. Hopefully it won't get so breezy up there on the terraces that someone gets blown off, but Adjaye's facade offers a swank touch that takes a page from Art Deco (like a couple of other towers being planned). And in New York's current more-of-the-same building boom, we could use a little more thinking outside of the glass box.
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