Waterfront Tower wins AIA Honors Award

This mixed-use tower is a response to the often-neglected East River waterfront. Formed conceptually by lifting up a volume of water displaced by a proposed new pier, the tower’s mass is anchored equally to water and sky. The central challenge was to create a constructible solution on an extremely constrained site. The result is a combination of two overlapping structural systems. At the commercial base, an efficient “pinwheel” structure permits maximum transparency in the façade. Above, the solid envelope, a mixed composition of transparent and opaque surfaces informed by study of the river’s ever-changing surface, acts as a moment frame while improving both energy performance and residents’ privacy. This never built project won an AIA New York chapter Honor Award.