Vista Design 06/01/07

Jean Nouvel 100 11^th Ave.

Jean Nouvel’s reputation as an architect with a brilliant flair for using modern technology to promote the historical and environmental elements of a building site will only be enhanced with the completion of 100 11 Avenue, Mr. Nouvel’s new condominium project on Manhattan’s West Side highway.

At first glance, the most captivating aspect of the twenty-three story structure will be the building’s south and west facades, where a patchwork of windows, which are framed in varying sizes, provide residences with a clear glass, kaleidoscope view of city vistas. One would think this design application to be aesthetically derived, but that is only partially true. Mr. Nouvel has also utilized this take on cubist, modern sculpture, to provide all residences with south and west facing views. He achieves this by pitching each window at a unique angle and torque, an algorithm that provides each dwelling with varying peeks of the aforementioned skyline.

But perhaps the most clever detail of this project is Mr. Nouvel’s decision to pull back the building’s façade from the south and west street fronts, allowing him to construct a seven story wall – a complimentary patchwork of mullioned glass and steel – that outlines the footprint of the property. What this ingeniously provides is a partially enclosed atrium from within and a reflecting pool of urban snapshots for pedestrians passing by the collage of framed glass.

The atrium will feature an open air dining patio for the property’s restaurant and suspended, landscaped terraces, which deliver a vertical garden-like environment throughout the height of the wall. What this achieves in a broader scope is a sense of bringing the outside in – a domestic model typically applied to Japanese and tropical dwelling, but considered impractical in an urban environment – at least until now.

On the flip side, meaning the property’s north and east façade, Mr. Nouvel has created a completely different visual sensation. The building’s exterior is planted black, with seemingly random windows punched into the façade. This mood is created to captivate the industrial past of the Chelsea neighborhood that it faces. But for Mr. Nouvel, never one to let his forward thinking concepts get lost in nostalgia, he uses the black backdrop to feature exposed, glassed in elevators adorned with LED lighting, providing the notion of constant life to a city that never sleeps.

In its complete form, 100 11^th Avenue will be the perfect thesis for Jean Nouvel’s ongoing master class. He will have created a landmark property of brilliant design that also captures the geographical and historical significance of a piece of land – all the while providing a democratic service to the people – one in which he let’s those living within the properties walls and those simply passing by, to at once be part of something that exudes and pays homage to the city around them.