by: Linda G. Miller
Downtown Brooklyn Unveils Andrea Steele-designed L10 Arts and Cultural Center
Almost 10 years in the making, the new L10 Arts and Cultural Center, a multi-disciplinary arts hub, has recently opened at 10 Lafayette Avenue. Developed by Two Trees Management in partnership with NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and NYCEDC, L10 serves as a community anchor in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District. Designed by Andrea Steele Architecture, the 65,000-square-foot space houses three new cinemas and additional spaces for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM); creates the first branch of the Brooklyn Public Library dedicated to arts and culture; provides the Museum of Contemporary African Arts (MoCADA) five times more exhibition space; and gives 651 ARTS its first-ever dedicated home with rehearsal studios and performance space. MoCADA’s front café serves as a civic gateway to all four cultural institutions and features a curvilinear wood wall that undulates to envelope a gift shop and draws patrons into the gallery. The gallery’s wall offers an adaptable exhibition surface for displaying either a single meandering show or a series of exhibitions and can accommodate special audio/video works within its folds. All of this results in an immersive and fluid procession, connecting the interior and exterior into a continuous panorama. The baffle ceiling houses low voltage connection points that accommodate art mounting, lighting, and AV to support diverse programming. Pivoting partitions line the perimeter, maximizing exhibition wall space and offering a variety of layout configurations. Sharing the curvilinear wall with MoCADA, the BPL branch library brings new event and meeting spaces to the neighborhood. The library’s wood-lined perimeter provides a framework for books, display, and seating that envelopes meeting nooks within its folds, and creates a flexible“theater in the round.” BAM extends its campus presence, bringing additional cinemas, a multi-purpose space, and their first ever publicly accessible film archive to their offerings. Continuing the material palette of the cultural spaces below, the wood ribbon guides patrons from ticketing/concessions and into the world of film and theater. A light-filled lobby with ceiling-suspended artwork by Leo Villareal, offers panoramic city views and a glimpse back to BAM’s Peter Jay Sharp Building across the street. Occupying the uppermost floor of the cultural center, 651 ARTS’ programs have the city skyline as their backdrop, reflecting their integration in the cultural landscape. The Blackbox Theater, equipped with a telescopic seating system, reflective and absorptive acoustic panels, ceiling mounted pipe grids, unistrut on the walls and blackout shades along the facade, offers incredible adaptability and flexibility in hosing a diverse range of performances and events. 651 ARTS’ rehearsal studios, gallery, and office spaces are light-filled with 360-degree views of their programming and city beyond. L10 is part of a larger mixed-use development that also includes affordable housing, retail, and a public plaza.
Aluminum Snake Sculpture Takes Shape in the Oculus for Lunar New Year
In celebration of Lunar New Year and the Year of the Snake, Danielle Chang, founder of lifestyle brand LUCKYRICE, teamed up with the artist Warren King and architects Richard Gluckman, FAIA, and Andrew Weigand, AIA, of Gluckman Tang Architects to create “Infinite Harmony,” a large-scale public art installation for the Oculus at the World Trade Center. Stretching across the floor of the Oculus and occupying a footprint of 79 by 34 feet, the installation brings to life the transformative energy of the snake as it responds to the skeletal lines of the building. The sculpture reinterprets the snake into the infinite flow of a Mobius strip, an object that symbolizes harmony and growth. Featuring augmented reality, the serpentine structure spans 150 linear feet and undulates between four and seven feet high, revealing itself to the viewer as they walk by. Visitors could interact with the sculpture after scanning a QR Code, allowing them to interact and control movements of an animated overlay of a snake. Built of two identical sculptural parts, the sculpture was digitally fabricated and produced in less than one month. The form was developed in a series of paper models crafted by Warren King and evolved to suit the capabilities of aluminum composite panels and CNC milling. The sculpture was subdivided into 66 individual two-foot sections, each composed of three folded pieces, in aggregate forming an intricate, faceted form. Each of the 220 aluminum composite panels in the sculpture were digitally modeled down to the individual bolt holes. That model was used to produce drawings, which were then cut out by a computer-controlled router before the panels were folded and fastened together by hand. The installation was on view for Lunar New Year from January 29 through February 12, 2025. After the installation at the Oculus, the sculpture will be stored and reassembled in a new site, to be announced shortly.
CetraRuddy Readies to Open Nation’s Largest Office-to-Residential Conversion in FiDi
25 Water Street is the largest completed office-to-residential conversion in the country to date. Rebranded as SoMA, which is short for South Manhattan, the 55-year-old FiDi building has been converted by CetraRuddy from a 22-story office building into a 32-story luxury rental tower. After a two-year gut renovation and the addition of a 10-story rooftop extension, the one-million-square-foot former banking facility now contains 1,320 apartments ranging from studios to three bedroom units, including a limited collection of penthouses. The project consists of over 100,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenity space including a landscaped roof deck, private dining areas, a serenity lounge, basketball and pickleball courts, pools, a bowling alley, an athletic club, spa, co-working spaces, and an art maker’s studio. Originally known as 4 New York Plaza, the building was designed in a Brutalist style by Carson, Lundin & Shaw to serve as an operations center for Manufacturers Hanover Trust. The building was designed with a minimal amount of narrow windows, ideal for computers, but not for the employees at JPMorgan Chase, the Daily News, and the National Enquirer who subsequently worked there. The building’s original red brick exterior, prevalent at the time when 25 Water Street was built, has now been replaced and features expansive windows. The project, which has been developed by GFP Real Estate and Metro Loft, makes use of New York State’s 467-m housing tax incentive, which facilitates the incorporation of affordable housing units into conversion projects. SoMA also participated in New York City’s new Office Conversion Accelerator program, an interagency initiative to expedite complicated regulatory processes related to residential conversions.
WORKac’s North Boulder Library Opens Doors
After decades of planning and community outreach, WORKac has completed North Boulder (NoBo) Library, located in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. The design of the 12,800-square-foot library’s unconventional shape is inspired by its position at the intersection of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. The building integrates itself into the landscape, connecting the urban fabric with Boulder’s natural environment. It negotiates the triangular site that includes a seasonal creek running diagonally through it with a building that respects the scale of its residential neighbors while opening up to views of the Flatiron Mountains and Rocky Mountain foothills to the south and west. The structure’s convergence of triangular forms, mirrors, and influences the internal layout. The main public floor is divided into a large reading room for adult patrons and a children’s area with a private nook for story-reading and windows on to a slide that can be accessed through a rope climbing structure, allowing kids to climb up through the building and slide down into the library’s new playground. Other key areas on the ground floor include the Maker Kitchen, which connects to an edible garden and playground; large windows offer breathtaking views of the mountains. The interior design incorporates custom elements like a wallpaper that features historical photos from Boulder’s archives, celebrating the region’s indigenous heritage. The library is designed with the major community spaces on the second floor. The lower northern side integrates a shallow, fully-accessible outdoor ramp that allows these second-floor community and ESL classrooms to open at night when the library is closed, reinforcing the library’s role as a community hub. This ramp is enhanced by a permanent public art installation titled “Nuages” by Montreal-based art and design team Daily tous les jours. The interactive artwork produces musical tones and short audio compositions to create that play as users ascend or descend the ramp. Stringent sustainability regulations ensured that the library maintained its high green building standards including a rooftop solar array that supplies a significant portion of the building’s energy. The site also features a rainwater garden planted with native, butterfly-attracting flowers and shrubs to protect the seasonal creek from runoff.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro to Design Therme Group’s Dubai Wellness Resort
Global well-being organization Therme Group is planning a new wellness resort located in Dubai’s revitalized Zabeel Park, adjacent to the Royal Palace of the Crown Prince. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), Therme Dubai – Islands in the Sky spans 500,000 square feet and will be contained in a structure that emerges from a lake to rise skyward over 32 feet. The urban oasis is a series botanical gardens suspended from the air, stacked terraces, and cascading pools where in the tradition of public bathing, guests can enjoy restorative thermal and mineral waters. By day, the atmosphere is designed to be contemplative and relaxing; at night, the spaces will be filled with music, artistic performances, and events. The project will also harness Therme Group’s sustainable innovations and technologies to minimize environmental impact while maximizing community benefits. The resort will recycle 90% of the water used in its thermal pools, while 80% of the fresh air and cooling needs will be met through clean energy sources. In addition, the project will implement smart resource management and advanced energy-efficient systems, ensuring a minimal environmental footprint. Upon completion in 2028, it is anticipated that project will attract 1.7 million visitors annually.
Think!-designed Glenmore Manor Tops Out in Brownsville, Brooklyn
Construction has topped out at Glenmore Manor, a 10-story affordable housing development at 97 Glenmore Avenue in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Designed by Think! Architecture and Design and developed by the Glenmore Manor Apartments Managers (a consortium of non-profit community developer African American Planning Commission, affordable housing owner-developer and builder Lemle & Wolff Companies, and private real estate company Brisa Builders), the 263,300-square-foot project will create 233 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedrooms, serving low-income families earning up to 80 percent area median income, formerly homeless individuals, and low-income seniors. Located on a formerly vacant parcel of land, the development is one of several residential components in the Brownsville Neighborhood Plan, an initiative to revitalize and invigorate the surrounding area. The project incorporates the key goals of the Plan, including commercial and community facilities to create a center for innovation and local entrepreneurship, providing new jobs and opportunities. This center is conceived as a 20,000-square-foot, two-story, highly transparent element known as the B’Ville Hub which will house community and commercial organizations including a credit union, restaurant, beauty products company, radio station, and the Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (CBEDC). Above the Hub, the building’s façade is composed of glazed blue and dark metal trim, with green roofs and solar panels to enhance the project’s sustainability. The overall design builds on opportunities within the existing urban landscape, strategically locating building mass, storefronts, and entrances to strengthen pedestrian corridors and create diverse opportunities for social and economic activities. A program by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the project is expected to be completed in 2026.
In Case You Missed It
Plans to turn part of a parking lot in Hudson Square at the intersection of Hudson and Houston into a 0.26-acre public plaza designed by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects (MNLA) were unveiled. The design draws inspiration from Eduardo Kobra’s “Ellis” mural, seen on the adjacent City-As-School building.
Hill West Architect’s 355 Exterior Street located in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx is on track to become the borough’s second tallest building, with the taller of its two towers reaching 437 feet. The project will deliver 714 rental units, 10,630 square feet of commercial space, and 325 parking spots; it is projected to be completed in 2026.
Andre Kikoski Architecture is transforming a 14-story former publishing house built in 1921 on East 25th Street between Lex and Park in the Flatiron District into 20 loft residences. Called Armorie, the existing ground-floor commercial space will be retained while the upper floors will be adapted into residences ranging from one to four bedrooms.
LOT-EK’s Bal Harbour Shops Access Pop-Up, originally designed and constructed for a site in West Palm Beach, is on the move. The temporary high-end retail and dining facility is composed of 28 40-foot shipping containers is now residing in Charleston, SC for the next few months before it travels to another locale.
Steven Holl: Drawing as Thought, featuring the drawings and watercolors of Steven Holl, will be on view at the Tchoban Foundation’s Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin now through May 4, 2025.