Common Spaces
The lobby is a dramatic transitional zone between the public life of the street outside and the privacy of individual homes in the tower above. Soft controlled lighting and dark monochromatic walls will create a theatrical but peaceful atmosphere that contrasts with the reflection and animation of the building's exterior. Enormous single-pane punched windows provide views of the building's tree-filled garden.
The building's mirror-canopied pool is designed so that residents may swim comfortably indoors or outdoors, depending upon the weather. A portion of the pool is sheltered within the building's structure, while the balance of its length extends into a landscaped outdoor space. A state-of-the-art glass partition has been customized to enclose the indoor portion of the pool during winter months or inclement weather, so that the indoor portion remains fully operative and warm at all times. Artfully conceived lighting will amplify reflections from the water's surface onto surrounding walls and into parts of the adjacent lower garden.
In this sketch, Nouvel proposes a possible interior design for the ground floor restaurant, suggesting luxurious but simple furnishings and finishes that will permit grand views onto the garden to dominate the decor and define the atmosphere.
Nouvel brings design themes and conceits used throughout the building - amplified direct and reflected light, carefully framed views of the outside world, layering of complex but subtle monochrome materials, sightlines rendered in as many directions as possible within adjacent spaces - into his concept proposal for a street-level restaurant at 100 11th. A plan illustrates how the restaurant may figure into the front of the building at street level, becoming the literal and figurative connection between public (sidewalk) and private (garden) life.
By raising the restaurant and other public functions of the ground floor to 4' above grade and sculpting a concrete base, Nouvel has created a perfect balance between pedestrian activity and the lively atmosphere of interiors. Views from the sidewalk of the restaurant animate the street and further catalyze the neighborhood's ongoing transformation.
View up and into Loggia level, from the patio of the ground floor restaurant. Within a framework of glass, steel, and concrete, a six-story vertical garden blooms. From planting boxes built into the structure, trees soar upward, plants cascade down the walls, and herbs lend their scent to the atmosphere.