New York City is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, but there’s no shortage of luxury developments inching their way to completion. Marquee architects like Herzog and de Meuron, Bjarke Ingels, SHoP, Zaha Hadid, Rafael Viñoly, and Jean Nouvel have all designed breathtaking condos outfitted with all the bells and whistles that are sure to catch monied buyers’ eyes. So how do developers stay competitive in the upper echelons of the real estate market? It’s all about the amenities.
“Waterline Square’s guiding force was placemaking,” Melissa Ziweslin, managing director of Corcoran Sunshine, the company in charge of Waterline’s sales, says. “It’s such a dynamic master plan to have everything at [the residents’] fingertips. GID (the developer) has been very committed to filling Waterline Square with all of those features, which is what a condo owner looks for and what future tenants want.”
While the design language of Waterline Square is all about the city and community, it’s private and insular. Condo owners will have access to all the amenities as part of their association fees. Renters, on the other hand, will have to pay extra. The exact fee structure for renters’ use of the amenities has not yet been determined. Plus, the amenities in each tower–like outdoor terraces outfitted with kitchens–won’t be accessible to renters. The class divide is even designed into the buildings themselves. Condos are no lower than the 20th floor to ensure that people who can buy real estate get the best views.
A City Within A City
Each of the three towers is distinct and has its own amenities, like communal lounges and roof terraces, but the bulk of the services are shared in a central space, which is located underneath the park. Rockwell Group was enlisted to design and program the spaces.
“One of the reasons people are attracted to living in the city is disparate elements colliding and the change and transformation that happens in the city,” David Rockwell, founder of Rockwell Group, says. “So thinking about how amenities would work in Waterline was the scale and the opportunity to have a range of amenities that touch on a range of different things.”
“We thought about spaces that are promenades and the theater of the city,” Rockwell says. “We used scale so there are big spaces and small spaces that weave through the overall area. We also thought about the city itself, which is so much about movement, like Times Square with its diagonal interruptions to the grid that created a open space.”
“Ultimately, the amenities are an extension of one’s home,” Ziweslin says. “Even a one-bedroom purchaser can have a penthouse experience.”
“Oases Apart From The Concrete Jungle”
A similar model is in play at One Manhattan Square, a new development on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. There, the landscape architecture and urban design firm West 8–which designed the Governors Island Hills–is creating a private one-acre garden for the residents, which travels up five stories. While the green spaces are for two different audiences, they share a similar intent: “Both of these projects aimed to be oases apart from the concrete jungle of Manhattan,” designer Adriaan Geuze told Designboom.
Both of these developments are offering space in a city that’s dense and overcrowded. And the truly public parks are suffering as a result, since taller skyscrapers can block light at street level. What Waterline Square shows is that room to breathe is the ultimate perk in Manhattan–and it’s available for purchase.
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