In this issue:
·New Residences Pay Homage to SoHo’s Past
·NYPD Blue’s Station House is in the Pink
·Richard Meier Designs Second Museum in Germany
·NYC Real Estate Brokers Raise $1 Million for Habitat

New Residences Pay Homage to SoHo’s Past

Gwathmey Siegel’s meticulously detailed façade and floor-to-ceiling windows pay tribute to Soho’s historic cast iron architecture, capturing and reflecting light and shadow as the day progresses.

Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects

Construction has begun on SoHo Mews, two independent residential buildings designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects linked by a private garden designed by landscape architect Peter Walker, FASLA. Upon completion, the 175,000-square-foot development will contain 68 luxury units — lofts, townhouses, and four penthouses — 4,500 square feet of ground floor commercial space on West Broadway, and underground parking spanning the entire site. With a nod to the neighborhood’s cast iron heritage, the buildings will have a stone base and a curtain wall of metal panels. Recessed, clear, frosted, and fritted glass with horizontal and vertical channels will express the floor slabs and columns. The Art Production Fund (APF), which will occupy a ground floor office and gallery space gratis of developer United American Land, will commission custom works for the public spaces.

NYPD Blue’s Station House is in the Pink

The NYPD’s 9th Precinct Station House.

Courtesy STV Inc.

The NYPD’s 9th Precinct station house on the Lower East Side, which was used as the backdrop for the television show “NYPD Blue,” has been completely modernized by STV Inc. for the Department of Design and Construction (DDC). The cast stone façade of the 1912 building was disassembled and refurbished, block-by-block. The first floor was given new openings and graphics sympathetic with the original design, and a new contemporary interior with two setback floors were added on the top of the building. The interior of the 8 1/2-story, 39,000-square-foot building now has a double height lobby and reception area with aluminum paneling, stainless steel air vents, barrel vaulted ceiling and curved surfaces, and a maple wood wall behind the reception desk. From behind a shoulder height reception desk, officers can view two large CCTV flat screens, which show changing views of the holding cells, elevators, and other areas for prisoners. Large glass panels fill the upper sections of the lobby walls on two sides offering visitors a glimpse of the staff walking along the second floor corridor.

Richard Meier Designs Second Museum in Germany

The Arp Museum.

Courtesy Arp Museum

The new Arp Museum, designed by Richard Meier Architects and scheduled to open on September 28, will house a collection of sculpture, drawings, paintings, and textiles by renowned Dada artists and their contemporaries. Situated on a heavily wooded escarpment above the Rhine River and the former Rolandseck railroad station, which now houses the Kumstler-Banhof for the Arts, the complex consists of the Arp Museum proper, a pavilion for temporary exhibitions, a subterranean corridor, and elevator tower connecting the two. Upon arrival, visitors ascend a monumental stair to the special exhibition level. The subterranean corridor leads to the 130-foot-high elevator tower leading to a two-story permanent collection. The main body of the building, clad in enameled metal panels, comprises a set of layered planes facing east, punctuated by glazed and louvered openings with a number of cantilevered balconies affording panoramic views over the Rhine.

NYC Real Estate Brokers Raise $1 Million for Habitat

Brokers Build is raising money to fund Habitat for Humanity homes in Brooklyn.

Dattner Architects

Brokers Build, an organization consisting of New York’s top real estate brokers, has raised money to build 11 homes in Brooklyn. Designed by Dattner Architects, these homes are part of a three-building development, with 41 units ranging from one- to three-bedroom condos. The project will include energy efficient and environmental design. As per the Habitat for Humanity program, families are required to supply “sweat equity” by participating in the building of their home. Brokers Build is encouraging every broker in the city to donate at least $25.