This twin-towered residential complex located in Greenwich Village, overlooking the Hudson River, is the first new construction in Manhattan to be designed by Richard Meier. The 15-story towers stand on the north and south corners of Perry and West Streets. Their transparent minimal form is a striking addition to the New York skyline.
The buildings are clad in insulating laminated glass and white metal panels with shadowboxes at the curtain wall expressing the individual floor plates. The apartments afford unobstructed panoramic views of Manhattan, the Hudson River, and the New Jersey riverfront. Entering from Perry Street, residents pass beneath a covered canopy to their respective lobbies. Each floor was designed to accommodate a single apartment of 1,800 square feet in area in the north tower at 173 Perry Street and 3,750 square feet in the south tower at 176 Perry Street.
Large operable windows are provided in a modulated pattern in the floor to ceiling glass curtain wall that bounds the perimeter of the floor plate on all four sides, interrupted only by the circulation ‘bustle’ in fair-faced concrete on the east façade of each tower. This extensive use of glass is made possible by the provision of perimeter heating at floor level throughout.
The buildings front onto the newly renovated Hudson River Park, which provides a mixture green and paved open spaces for walkers, joggers, cyclists, and roller bladers all the way from Battery Park City to Fifty-ninth Street.