56 Leonard Street by Herzog & de Meuron: Back on Track
By Lucas on Oct 23, 2012
Six years ago, when Herzog & de Meuron released their designs for their New York project, 56 Leonard Street, minds were blown, people got stoked, fists were bumped, and high-fives were had - but right before construction, disaster struck. 56 Leonard Street was set to start construction four years ago, but then NIMBYism slowed the process, and the plummeting of the economy didn’t help.
56 Leonard Street is planned to stand 57 storeys, topping out at roughly 830 feet. 57 storeys doesn’t seem to extravagant for New York, but for the Tribeca neighbourhood (lower Manhattan), it’s pretty tall. Tribeca has an industrial past, and many of the residential buildings are either low-rises or former factories and warehouses that have been converted into mid-rise loft residences.
Well, after four long years, it looks like 56 Leonard Street is set to begin construction again! 56 Leonard Street will feature 145 residential units, some of them reaching sizes greater than 5,000 square feet. Some of the interior features of 56 Leonard Street include ceiling heights ranging from 11’ to 14’, Appalachian solid white oak flooring, granite countertops, custom-designed cabinetry, custom-designed marble mosaic-tiled walls, and just about custom-designed everything else.
Clearly, the most interesting aspect of 56 Leonard Street is the exterior. It resembles a giant, intense game of Jenga - except made of glass, and way fancier. The protruding portions of 56 Leonard Street allow for a greater amount of outdoor space, and contrasts with the other soaring towers of New York. For what 56 Leonard Street lacks in size (in comparison to other towers in New York), it makes up for in style.It’s interesting that Herzog & de Meuron have been producing designs like 56 Leonard Street since 2006. It seems that only in the past couple years, we have been seeing proposals resembling this interesting framework. Perhaps, 56 Leonard Street didn’t move forward four years ago because New York or the world wasn’t ready for this kind of design - and now they are. We are very excited for a tower like 56 Leonard Street to be constructed so close to home. Maybe Toronto will see some towers like this soon...*cough* Mirvish-Gehry *cough*.
What do you think of Herzog & de Meuron’s design for 56 Leonard Street?Would you like to see something like this in Toronto?
