The project reinvents the
typology of the urban townhouse on a typically narrow infill Manhattan plot. By radically reconfiguring the organization and façade of
the building, open loft-like living spaces find privacy from the street behind
a four-storey vertical library.
The
clients asked for open loft-like spaces and privacy from the street - in
contrast to the standard New York City row house with parlor room windows right
on the street, usually curtained or shuttered from the eyes of passersby. The conventional plan and section were redefined
with the stair and elevator core pushed up against the street façade, instead
of running along one of the party walls.
As a result, loft-like spaces run fluidly the entire length of the
38-foot-deep building, rather than being compartmentalized into small front and
back rooms.
The front façade engages the street with a custom
water-cut aluminum rain screen with brick-shaped openings relating to the solid
bricks of its neighbors. During the day, it appears as a flat, patterned mass,
marked off from the adjacent houses by the tall glass slots on either side. The
horizontal joints of the aluminum panels break up the vertical surface as a
reference to the rhythm of the window spacing of the row houses. At dusk, this
impression wanes as the glow from the horizontal slit windows and the vertical
glass slots animates the street façade. The aluminum appears more as a screen
than a mass, and invites the eye toward, but not into, the house.
The rear façade is in counterpoint to the
front: It is all glass; a full-height, full-width curtain wall that bathes the
interior in light. At night, the warm lantern-like light of the interior
illuminates the rear garden.
The public spaces of
the townhouse (living room, dining room, and kitchen) are linked by a
light-filled mezzanine which overlooks the backyard. The etched glass on the upper three floors
gives privacy to the bedrooms and baths, as well as a diffused light that is in
fact, brighter than clear glass. By
extending the materials (brick, stone and wood) of the ground floor open living
and dining area out into the garden, the spatial experience captures the full
70-foot-depth of the site.
Peter Gluck and Partners Architects
ARCS Construction Services
Guido Furlanello, Construction Manager
Peter L. Gluck
Thomas Gluck, Project Architect
Robert Holton
Jason Kreuzer
Shlomit Levav
A.B. Moburg-Davis
Scott Scales
Jeff Straesser
Jason Walls
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