The 20-storey building will join a series of new New York condominiums designed by the best architects in the world (just remember the two towers of Jean Nouvel (not counting his project for the site next to the MoMA Museum), the house of Bernard Chumi, Richard Mayer, Santiago Calatrava, Herzog & de Meron "and others).
A distinctive feature of the work of Ben van Berkel's workshop will be black metal bands that tightly braid the volume of the building. In addition to a purely decorative role, they will serve as fences for balconies, terraces, as well as sun screens, simultaneously protecting the privacy of residents from outside views.
Flowing volumes, frozen in endless movement, have been a hallmark of van Berkel's projects since the late 1990s. He was also always interested in new possibilities for home design provided by modern architecture. In the case of the house at 5 Franklin Place, UN Studio was attracted by the opportunity to contrast the appearance of this quiet street, which has survived from the 19th century, and an innovative building that personifies the architectural quest of today. At the same time, van Berkel names among his sources of inspiration the cast-iron facades of buildings from the century before last, preserved in the area of new construction.
The theme of the movement, started by dark shiny ribbons outside the future building, continues inside with smooth, curvilinear outlines of rooms that flow into each other: this solution made it possible to make the most of natural light and open views of the city for most of the rooms in each apartment. The new tower is located on the edge of Manhattan's Tribeca district, so it rises on low-rise buildings, and two-thirds of its floors have access to air and light, which is rare in New York. In those apartments (lofts of the lower tiers), in which such opportunities cannot be used, the interior is done in the lightest possible colors to avoid the impression of being shaded.
Tower 5 Franklin Place is the first major building of the Dutch UN Studio in the United States, and developers were quick to connect this milestone with the 400th anniversary of the first settlement of immigrants from the Netherlands in Manhattan, celebrated in 2014.
