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The dangers of touting architecture in a vacuum: the 550 Vanderbilt example

The UK architecture publication CLAD (Community of Leisure Architects Designers, according to the URL, but also aimed at investment and development), on 4/1/20 offered Rick Cook on the need for sustainability, wellness and resiliency in design.

The interview with the co-founder of COOKFOX Architects includes:
Today, COOKFOX's work ranges in scope from small "jewel" projects and single-family homes to complex urban transformations and large institutional and commercial spaces. All, however, are built on the firm's underlying principles.
...The mixed-use 550 Vanderbilt development in Brooklyn was designed to integrate nature for the health and wellbeing of its residents, with natural materials like wood and stone used to create an inviting, tactile experience that transitions residents from the street to their homes.
Well, it is a handsome building, especially compared to the less costly, and less invested-in other Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park towers.

But the use of wood and stone, of course, for the near term can't distract from the fact that there will be years of construction on adjacent parcels: not just the B12 tower directly to the west along Dean Street, but the deck over the adjacent Vanderbilt Yard to the north, and then the B8 and B9 towers over it, as well as the associated open space created.

(Here's the extensive COOKFOX page on 550 Vanderbilt, which successfully obscures the empty adjacencies.)

In other words, the residents' health and well-being will be affected by inevitable construction.

Comments

  1. I'd happily let COOKFOX design the rest of the project. The renderings for the Handel Architects buildings are pretty disappointing to put it diplomatically.

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    Replies
    1. The point of comparison for CookFox should be the B14 building, 535 Carlton, more than B11, 550 Vanderbilt, because they spent a lot more money on 550, as a condo tower.

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