Friday 17 September 2021

JENGA JENGA: Acting against 'anonymity and repetitiveness'


56 Leonard New York is also known as the Jenga Tower. It is another exciting example of affordable housing, overlooking the Hudson River. Eight hundred and twenty-one feet (250 m) tall, its 57 stories are served by 10 elevators.




 

The building in this drawing is from a photograph by PJ Lehrer’ looks like a teetering tower of perspex boxes.

 

Further investigation shows it was designed by my favourite Swiss firm of architects, Hezog + Meuron. Their considered description for the building is found here.

https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/complete-works/301-325/305-56-leonard-street.html

 

From which this lively narrative is taken:

‘Together these different strategies – considering the tower from the inside-out, responding to local scales, and maximizing the potential of local construction systems – produce a building where only five out of the 145 apartments are repeated. Furthermore, no two floor plates are the same, giving those who will live in this project their own unique home characterized by distinct moments of individuality within the overall stack’.

 

The building’s foundations were laid in 2008 and by the end of 2013 over 90% of the 145 apartment’s were sold. Priced between US$3.5 million and US$50 million. These condo’s range in size from 1,400 to 6,400 square feet (131.7 to 594.6 m2) and include two to five bedrooms. All come with private outdoor spaces.

 

The building’s back story is nicely introduced in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/56_Leonard_Street

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Thank you very much for your comments - Tim