Ben Van Berkel's First Major American Building Begins Construction in New York City

published May 5, 2008
Ben Van Berkels First Major American Building Begins Construction in New York City
Construction begins in New York City on Ben van Berkel's latest, most ambitious and beautiful re-interpretation of standard domestic architecture: Five Franklin Place, UNStudio's first major American project, will be a 20-story residential tower on Franklin Place, an original 19th century cobbled passageway that runs parallel to Broadway and connects Franklin and White Streets in the Tribeca historic district of Downtown Manhattan.

The building will be wrapped in an optically dazzling, constantly shifting pattern of horizontal black metal bands sewn onto its form the way decorative seams and pleats are sewn onto a luxurious couture garment.

A direct homage to the applied metal facade decoration of Tribeca's celebrated 19th century cast iron architecture, these gleaming reflective ribbons will grow thinner and thicker, wrapping the entire tower and moving softly around corners to give the whole structure an etched effect and curvilinear softness, while reflecting the evolving light of day, the clouds and the colors of the city in one of the most dramatic compositions attempted in modern Manhattan's recent building boom.

Van Berkel's highly decorative architectural garment is no mere graphic conceit: Thanks to strategic twisting and torquing, his facade bands will serve as essential functional elements of the tower as well, transforming into balconies for more than half of the building's residences, terraces for the penthouses at the top, and sunshades that deflect heat and protect all of the structure's interiors from excess sunlight.