by Murrye Bernard Assoc. AIA LEED AP
Event: Architect Talks: Focus on 13th Street
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.03.10
Speaker: Philip Wu, AIA — Partner, io Architects
Organizer: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP)
Co-sponsor: Center for Architecture
While new projects in historic districts are subject to an extensive Landmarks approval, projects on the fringe often escape the process. In these cases, the public is removed from the conversation. To open public dialogue on these projects, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) created a series of Architect Talks, the first of which focuses on 39 E.13th Street, designed by io Architects, which won an AIA New York State 2009 Award of Excellence.
Located between Broadway and University Place, the project evolved to include both a restoration and an addition. After studying the zoning requirements, Philip Wu, AIA, partner at io, determined that the building could expand horizontally to occupy the entire lot, and vertically by three floors to maximize square footage. He convinced the client to save and refurbish the building’s historic 19th-century cast iron façade, as well as add new floors on top of the non-load bearing structure.
For the addition, Wu decided to align the three new floors with the edge of the façade, rather than cantilever or set it back, though no other precedents exist in the city. He followed a process of subtraction to carve out a light well that provides both light and air, and a terrace on the top floor, which can be rented for special events. In an effort to create “tension and balance between old and new,” Wu extended the existing columns beyond the existing roof, and installed channel glass behind them. This created “shade and shadow that is similar to the cast iron, but differentiated.” Thus, the building addresses historical Greenwich Village to the south and the “new” urban space of Union Square to the north.
Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.