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529 Broadway
Landmark Preservation Commissioners were uninhibited in their praise for BKSK’s design for a new 6-story commercial building at the corner of Broadway and Spring Street in the heart of Soho. One proclaimed it “the most exciting of my tenure [on the Commission].” The building recalls an earlier predecessor on the site, the Prescott House, a large 19th-century hotel that was mostly reduced to a two-story taxpayer in 1935.
Using state-of-the-art modeling software, the design team conceived a terra cotta rain screen and glass curtain wall facade system that transforms a seemingly punched opening masonry building (evoking the old hotel) into a glass curtain wall building reflecting the openness ratio of later cast iron buildings in the district. The terra cotta elements on the Spring Street elevation twist and dematerialize so that the facade culminates in a modern glass curtain wall with terra cotta accents and district-appropriate loft dimensions fronting on Broadway.
Designed without a tenant in mind, a large draw for Nike to settle its global headquarters in 529 was the uniqueness of the building – a respectful standout on Broadway.
Awards
American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC), Gold Award - Category C: Structural Systems, 2019
American Council of Engineering Companies of New York, 2019 Engineering Excellence Gold Award in the category C: Structural Systems, 2019
American Architecture Prize, Winner - Architectural Design / Commercial Architecture, 2017
Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards, Branded Environments, Honorable Mention, 2017
Society of American Registered Architects New York Council (SARA | NY), Design Award of Excellence, 2017
Press
“Reviving the Joy of Decoration at Nike’s New SoHo Building,” The New York Times, October 2017
“The Strange State of New York’s Street-Level Retail Storefronts,” New York Magazine, July 2017
“On the Forefront of Storefronts: The street-level evolution of retail.,” New York Magazine (print), July 2017
“From Nike to Zara, NYC shopping has never been better,” New York Post, January 2017
“Reasons to Love New York,” NYMag, December 2016
“At the Corner of Past and Present,” Oculus, December 2015
“Cast of Characters: BKSK’s warping tribute to Soho’s cast-iron history,” Architect's Newspaper, May 2014
“NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission Lauds “Exciting” New Building,” Arch Daily, September 2013
“Landmark Commission blown away by 529 Broadway Designs,” Curbed, September 2013
COLLABORATORS
Front – exterior envelope consultant; Parabox – software specialist; Gilsanz Murray Steficeck – structural; Higgins Quasebarth & Partners – preservation consultant; Harco Construction – construction manager; SRA Architecture + Engineering – MEP (initial filing); GEA Consulting Engineers – MEP (tenant PAA)
Photos by Chris Payne/ESTO and Field Condition
"...design fans should soon be recognizing it as one of the most exciting and intelligent structures to be built for decades, anywhere. "
Blake Gopnik, The New York Times