|
W New York Downtown tower nears completion
As the trials and tribulations at the former WTC site continue to unfold, there is good news nearby. The W New York Downtown Hotel and Residences, a 57-storey tower rising at the southernmost edge of the World Trade Center Memorial Site, will complete later this year. Designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects with GRAFT providing the interior design, the project is the first luxury hotel and residential tower to be built in Lower Manhattan and the first new project not a part of the WTC complex to begin construction since 9/11.
Rising from a four storey limestone base that will contain a restaurant, lounge, conference center, and fitness center, the glass clad tower will house 217 hotel rooms and 222 residences with commanding views of the memorial site, the water and the city beyond.
To differentiate the tower from the commercial structures nearby, the architects have clad the tower with a glass curtain wall that has a subtle grid pattern of white, grey and clear glass panels. The grid is expressed in white glass panels with variations in the pattern to differentiate the three sections of the tower: the hotel guest rooms, the hotel residences and the condominiums.
A landscaped urban plaza along the tower’s southern edge completes the project.
|
