How to satisfy the needs of a New York City developer and the city’s planning department, while creating an urban connection between the Hudson riverfront on the one hand, and the Highline on the other. This research study for an 80.000 m2 residential tower responds to these questions by creating a ‘canyon’ of terraces and green spaces with a public pedestrian route running through it, connecting the Highline to the river.

A series of pushing and pulling acts further improves each apartment’s access to natural light, as well as creating a series of larger terraces and more interesting spatial conditions in the ‘canyon’. The exterior of the building receives a staid, and rather typical for New York, façade treatment: a standard grid of windows. On the inside of the canyon however, glazing creates a community in the sky: while no window is close enough to see into, a vista of different homes is formed. By planting the terraces of the canyon, this vista becomes green, like a park, relating the building to the Highline beside it. A green corridor or connection allows pedestrians to pass through the building, a truly public route, which allows the highline to continue on in a way to the riverfront itself.