Oculus - Fall 2016 - 33
©Rob Stephenson
A
s the Financial District staged a
comeback from Midtown in 1964,
developer Samuel Rudin made history
by commissioning a Modernist tower
from Emery Roth & Sons at the corner of
Wall and Front Streets, the first privately
sponsored office building on Wall Street
since the Great Depression. In 2016, the
same 28-story tower, ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, completely gutted and
repurposed, again made history, this time
as the prototype of a new "social building"
typology for small-footprint, high-tech
urban living centered on "communitydriven" experience.
WeLive is the residential platform of
WeWork, a shared workspace startup
begun by Adam Neumann and Miguel
McKelvey in 2010, now valued at some
$16 billion. The 300,000-square-foot flagship at 110 Wall Street is the first building
completely occupied by the company,
with cowork floors two through six
topped by 21 floors of co-living.
Perfect site for co-living
The project took shape in 2013 when
Darrick Borowski, Assoc. AIA, and Rik
Ekstrom, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, partners
in ARExA (silent x), were offered space at
an early WeWork site. Observing young,
mobile entrepreneurs who didn't want
to be tied down by long leases suggested
to McKelvey that WeWork's advantages
might have a residential counterpart. He
asked ARExA to translate the underlying
principles of coworking to co-living. The
flooded, abandoned building at 110 Wall
Authenticity + Innovation: Architecture Repurposed
emerged as a test site. "Office buildings
typically have deeper floor plates than
residential buildings, so we had more
space to play with in the dark center of
the building," says Borowski. "We relished
the inefficiencies and used them to our
advantage. The WeLive concept is perfect
for the reuse of old office buildings." In
repurposing the building, the "infrastructure needed to be completely redesigned
and adapted, not just for the new user, but
to withstand the next Sandy and be truly
resilient," adds Sital Patel, AIA, LEED AP,
principal of S9 Architecture. "Research
and brainstorming sessions with WeWork/WeLive led to creative solutions
within the building, whose new uses
could have never been imagined by the
building's original architects."
Three diminishing floorplates (16,000
to 10,700 to 6,600 square feet) offer 22
apartment types, from studios to four
bedrooms. In the compact units everything folds down, up, or out, like a Swiss
army knife. In studios, a Murphy bed
hinges down from the wall onto a built-in
sofa to extend over a height-adjustable
coffee/work/eating table; no rearranging
is necessary.
The largest apartments, about 1,000
square feet, have separate bedrooms with
real beds, but the most common units,
six per floor, are 450-square-foot hybrids
designed to be shared. Each includes a
Murphy pull-down and an alcove bed
inspired by traditional Swedish cottages,
where beds are set into cubicles and
protected for warmth and privacy by a
front curtain. The notion of tucking a bed
into the wall proved a breakthrough for
the design team, and led to their concept
of a modular program-loaded party wall
that organizes each living unit. Instead of
bulky freestanding furniture, all apartments have sound absorptive casework
carved into the walls. Even the smallest units impressively answer a major
complaint about New York apartments:
insufficient storage.
The neutrally colored apartments are
"inviting but not precious or industrial,"
Borowski says, basically providing "a
clean slate" that occupants can personalize with interactive pegboards and
pin-ups on felt or cork wall panels. Most
living units have a corner kitchen zone
with an induction stove top, microwave,
and full-size refrigerator/freezer (everything needed for take-out and frozen
foods). The luxury of an unusually large
bathroom somehow decompresses the
otherwise tight quarters.
"Walk in and start living"
"Small spaces feel more livable and
less cluttered when they're organized,"
explains Quinton Kerns, senior WeLive
designer overseeing the rollout of 110
Wall. "It's all very clean and pared down,
just like the lifestyle of members who live
here." The fully furnished apartments
are equipped with basic kitchen utensils,
dishes, towels, linens, and art. "All you
have to do is walk in and start living."
In selecting an apartment configuration, residents also have limited choices:
for example, whether to use a particular
module as a built-in desk or as additional
storage. In general, options are greater in
the upper floors, where lessons learned
are implemented, as the whole is an
incubator for new ideas and ways of doing
things. Among the experimental concepts
in development are hotel-like accommodations for overnight stays. The prototype
is evolving.
The typical month-to-month lease
includes a $125 fee for cleaning, utilities, Internet, and cable connection to
a standard 55-inch television. All units
have operable windows and ceiling fans,
occupancy-triggered climate control, and
WiFi-connected speakers. The high-tech
environment is controlled by a smartphone app that accesses housekeeping
and services, activities, personal profiles,
and social networks - even finding a
compatible roommate.
In developing the prototype, ARExA
investigated monasteries, dormitories,
communes, kibbutzim, Soviet Social
Condensers (constructivist attempts to
influence social behavior through the
design of public spaces), and particularly
failed public housing in the U.S. to learn
about perceived ownership of communal
spaces. The team studied urban sociologists like William "Holly" Whyte and
Jane Jacobs before adopting a strategy of
three-floor vertical neighborhoods. Each
Fall 2016 Oculus
33
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Oculus - Fall 2016
First Words Letter from the President
Letter from the Editor
Center for Architecture
One Block Over
Opener: Authenticity and Innovation
Civic Purpose Repurposed: Brooklyn
Civic Purpose Repurposed: Bronx
A Study in Contrasts
WeLive on Wall Street
A Preservation Paradox
Industrial Strength
Innovation Rooted in History
In Print
97-Year Watch
Last Words
Index to Advertisers
Oculus - Fall 2016 - cover1
Oculus - Fall 2016 - cover2
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 3
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 4
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 5
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 6
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 7
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 8
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 9
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 10
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 11
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 12
Oculus - Fall 2016 - First Words Letter from the President
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 14
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Letter from the Editor
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 16
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 17
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Center for Architecture
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 19
Oculus - Fall 2016 - One Block Over
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 21
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 22
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 23
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 24
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Opener: Authenticity and Innovation
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Civic Purpose Repurposed: Brooklyn
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 27
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Civic Purpose Repurposed: Bronx
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 29
Oculus - Fall 2016 - A Study in Contrasts
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 31
Oculus - Fall 2016 - WeLive on Wall Street
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 33
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 34
Oculus - Fall 2016 - A Preservation Paradox
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 36
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 37
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Industrial Strength
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 39
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 40
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 41
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Innovation Rooted in History
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 43
Oculus - Fall 2016 - In Print
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 97-Year Watch
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 46
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Last Words
Oculus - Fall 2016 - Index to Advertisers
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 49
Oculus - Fall 2016 - 50
Oculus - Fall 2016 - cover3
Oculus - Fall 2016 - cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0317
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0217
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0117
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0416
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0316
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0216
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0116
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0415
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0315
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0215
https://www.nxtbook.com/naylor/ARCQ/ARCQ0115
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com