2024
This 40-story, 300,000 square foot residential mixed-use building, offering 164 condominium apartments and 29 faculty housing apartments, sits on a unique site within the Union Theological Seminary, a full block Gothic revival campus on the northern edge of Morningside Heights in Upper Manhattan. This one block site is positioned in a neighborhood of academic campuses and significant buildings including Riverside Memorial Church located to the northwest corner of the campus. The building’s massing and detailing takes inspiration from the gothic revival academic buildings of the surrounding Seminary. The tower’s building massing sets back from Claremont Avenue in a series of steps providing a transition to the building top and outdoor terraces and loggias for use by the residents.
The lower mass of the 8-story faculty housing, parking and academic wing creates a base for the building that relates to the intimate scale of Claremont Avenue and ties it to the existing fabric of Union Theological buildings and interior courtyard. On the facades, a variety of mid-scale strategies relate the building to the scale of the surrounding neighborhood. Double arched windows articulate the corners of the primary masses. Symmetrical window groupings mark the center of the elevations. Multi-story bay windows increase the sense of Gothic verticality. The crown is punctuated with 4 gothic arched figures giving the tower a presence on the skyline.
The building references the rich architectural details of the existing campus which consists of grey schist stone with limestone detailing. The tower’s façade of blended grey brick is trimmed with limestone colored architectural pre-cast and stringcourses serve as a base for local window groupings. Windows of the faculty wing are trimmed and quoined in a fashion similar to adjacent surrounding buildings. At the top of the building a full-floor penthouse has large-scale windows which bring ample light into all the rooms and provide spectacular 360-degree views. The spacious living area is centered with a limestone-trimmed fireplace. It also offers expansive views of the city and the Hudson River.
