apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

If this building is going up where I think it's going up, I'm not sure opening the apartments to the elements is going to be a very workable idea. It's extremely windy along the West Side Highway in Chelsea. What's the likelihood that this feature is ever actually going to be used?

I hope the new inhabitants are planning on buying a lot of paperweights...

Sorry to double post, but I just read the Curbed article, and this seems to be planned for across the street from my office building. Definitely sticking to my above musing about wind levels and the practicality of opening your apartment to the elements.

Also, very, very noisy 24/7 with lots of trucks going by outside.

I see this as a gimmick. I suppose it would be great for a cocktail party (paper weights on the napkins...Please!) but you would have to make certain that guests were limited in the amount of alcohol they consumed. God forbide should any one do an alcohol/drug combo! Of course, that would never happen in NYC.

wow, pretty delirious possibilities
especially on higher floors away from noise
and soot

on days like today, I long for open architecture structures
like courtyards in Mexico

Will work so much better on Long Island

This is a fabulous idea.

This would be a fabulous design for a 6 story building in a low-rise residential neighborhood.

This would be a fabulous design for beachfront property.

I'm starting to be really apprehensive about all this "starchitect" development -- a lot of the projects seem to be rather poorly conceptualized for the location, even from a layperson's perspective. I started feeling this way when it was announced that Gehry's designs for the new Atlantic Yards development in very residential, very low rise treelined and pre-war Prospect Heights would be 40 story glass high rises, but I thought I was just picking nits. Now it's just starting to annoy me.

I'll wait for reviews from the inhabitants. A lot of their reactions will be based upon the direction of the light at various times of day. What degree of glare is there inside? Is there glare for others outside? Does it improve privacy? Does it hinder air flow? Do the mechanisms work well (especially over time). Are there unexpected benefits to the interiors? How does it stand up to weather....really bad weather with a lot of wind? How dirty does it get at various levels? How difficult (and expensive) is the whole thing to clean? Does dirt gum up the moving mechanisms?

More than any other aspect, the light will make the biggest aesthetic difference. Controlling the light and it's secondary aspects will enhance life or make people deeply angry. There had better be a fabulous trade off for the aesthetic is people feel they are losing personal control of their environment.

No one has mentioned the placement of the building (facing what direction) and whether there are other buildings that are impeding the light anyway? Can anyone tell me?

I love how these architectural renderings are from far away and depict a surrounding area that his spacious and full of light. The fact of the matter is that this is a midblock location on a very narrow sidestreet shrouded in shadows for much of the day. I would imagine that the exposures are going to be NNE and SSW, with only the top levels enjoying sunlight throughout the day.

Although we may all secretly envy/fetishize the California "open to the elements" style, the fact remains that this is New York. Not only will your neighbors be able to look right into your apartment, you will always hear an ambulance or a honking cab. The weather is either too hot, too cold, too humid, too wet, etc. for most of the time. And contrary to popular belief, unlike much of California, NYC is full of nasty, biting flying critters. If you want to live the California lifestyle, frickin' move to California already!

If anything, I would like to see a concept like Shigeru Ban's "Furniture House" in Wainscott become expanded into a "Furniture Building." That would definitely be interesting!

I think this is a terrible idea, for this location anyway. I can't imagine any benefit to metal walls that open (as far as I can see) from the bottom up, and with no barrier to falling several stories. There are places where this kind of design will work, but NYC is not one of them.