Tadao Ando, a phenomenal architect, was born in Osaka, Japan. Growing up as the city was recovering from the war, Tadao Ando spent most of his time mastering the art of carpentry. From the young age of 10 to 17 Tadao Ando worked for a local carpenter. The self-taught architect is the one of the world’s most renowned architect and the only artist to win all four of the leading international architecture awards; The Pritzker Prize, known as the Nobel Prize of architecture. The Praemium Imperiale award which is a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association. Additionally he won The Kyoto Prize and the Carlsberg architecture prize. His buildings have surfaced in Milan, Shanghai, Tokyo, and even Butwal, Nepal; however the artist Tadao Ando, had never designed a building in New York City. 

152 Elizabeth Street is Ando’s first luxury condominium building in Manhattan’s Nolita district, created by Sumaida and Khurana. The New York based condominium was designed by Tadao Ando along with AIA award winning architects, Michael Gabellini and Kimberly Sheppard. The duo collaborated with Ando to design the building’s interiors, bringing his refined sensibility, and signature style to 152 Elizabeth Street. With this project, Ando joins various celebrity architects who have made their mark on the city’s landscape.

Michael Gabellini who is well known for his installation of The Rainbow Room at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, major landmarks, and stores for high-end fashion brands such as Armani, Jil Sander, and Ferragamo. 152 Elizabeth Street measures 32,000-square feet and will rise seven stories. In addition every residence is treated as a custom home and they are individually configured to highlight their unparalleled level of craft and quality. The condominium is expected to open in Spring 2017.

The building is designed to resemble a glass jewel box suspended and poured in place concrete - a classic touch by Tadao Ando, who typically likes to blend buildings with their natural surroundings and almost invariably employs concrete. 152 Elizabeth Street will have a garden wall planted with vines, including Virginia creeper, which turns a brilliant red in the fall, burnished metal, voluminous glass, and a living green wall measuring 55-feet-high and 99-feet-wide - one of the largest in New York City. Four main elements of Ando’s design are light, sound, air, and water. Her finds beauty in refinement and simplicity. The combination of materials, adds an unparalleled level of craft and quality to the Nolita district. Like a crystal grows within rock, the corner of the building is metaphorically thought of as a crystalline box emerging from the solid concrete frame that highlights the site.

The building features many sprawling views, which round out the spaces, bringing the outside in and the inside out. It takes its inspiration from New York City, embracing the urban landscape of Nolita while creating a sanctuary apart from it. Sound was also a key consideration as the building uses airport quality exterior glass to create an acoustic cocoon. One of the building’s signature design features is found in its vestibule, a floor-to ceiling water wall with grooved glass panels that is backlit by diffused natural light. Furthermore, residents and visitors immediately experience the tension between light and shadow, with light piercing through slits in the walls, animating the room’s architectural concrete surfaces. Complementing the water wall in the front lobby, the ever-changing installation will transition naturally depending on the time of day, night, weather conditions, and the season. Paired with the ambient noise from the water wall, the volume of illuminated mist furthers the sensory experience, creating a sanctuary from the bustling city immediately upon entering the building. The accessibility of these environmental features in the building’s public spaces serves to provide a cohesive sense of pleasure and visual stimulation.

Architect Gabellini is known for creating timeless spaces. For 152 Elizabeth Street he is outfitting each of the seven bespoke residences with rich materials that evoke warmth, purity, spatial complexity, and surprise with striking details with intricate layers. The architect’s basic principle was to create a sense of openness by having very few walls and doors, while still allowing separation and privacy from room to room and from inside to outside. Gabellini honed in on elements like light, air, sound, and water to define interior and exterior spaces and complement Ando’s architectural design.

152 Elizabeth Street offers highly covetable features and amenities, each residence will offer a top-of-the-line dehumidification system that is ideal for art collectors who want to display pieces in their homes; the use of galvanized metal as accents to frame and artisan plaster walls, elevator and fireplace volumes encased in absolute black and Pietra Cardosa stone; and “reveals,” a Gabellini Sheppard Associates signature design feature that serves creating a sense of floating volumes within a continuous plane. In addition, amenities include an automated private residential parking garage with parking spaces available for purchase for each residence, a 24-hour doorman, and spacious parking.

152 Elizabeth Street -

WEBSITE: http://www.152elizabethst.com/

VIDEO COMMISSIONED BY SUMAIDA + KHURANA: https://vimeo.com/125463064

WRITTEN BY: RAWDAH AL NAIMI

ALL RENDERINGS BY: NOË & ASSOCIATES AND THE BOUNDARY

VIDEO BY: SUMAIDA + KHURANA