Oculus - Fall 2016 - 34

Landing pad and launching pad Thanks to the deep office building floorplates, the non-corridors, filled with neighborhood-specific music, are much wider than typical hallways. More like long public rooms, they invite lingering in lounges, breakfast nooks, occasional seating, even an open library (with soft music), all designed to draw people out of their apartments into the larger community. Handsome open stairways are also "a huge part of the concept" and encourage active use over elevators. A basement mailroom-bar that invites after-work interactions is planned, as is a ground-floor 34 Oculus Fall 2016 ©©Sean Karns ©Rob Stephenson ©©Sean Karns offers a communal kitchen configured for family-style, hibachi, or other popular dining themes, including a demonstration kitchen to host cooking classes. Each neighborhood includes a unique shared living room and a defining "destination" space with amenities that lure people throughout the building to socialize. Among the most popular destinations is the laundry room, which, liberated from the basement, is centrally located and equipped with ping-pong and pool tables and video arcades, transforming weekly drudgery into an enjoyable social occasion. Other destination spaces include a yoga/exercise room and a communal entertainment center for watching sports, concerts, and other popular events. Each neighborhood has its own character, colors, textures, and finishes, with subtle variations to distinguish one floor from the other two. "The greatest challenge," explains Borowski, "was dealing with outmoded zoning and building codes. They're really structured to churn out what's been done before, not to encourage trying something new." Requirements for fire-rated compartments were especially challenging. Unlike the typical apartment building, where a "community room" is glimpsed through a small wire-glass window in a heavy metal door, the whole idea was to create a continuous flow of social space. "We outlawed the word 'corridor,'" Borowski says. "The idea was that the interstitial space - the forgotten space - could actually become the seed of a more interesting, more social way of life." restaurant that will connect the whole to the street. The fundamental idea was to create a landing pad where people could arrive in a new city and immediately feel at home, and then a launching pad for networking and plugging in. How does WeLive compare with other apartments in the area? "It's a tricky question," says Kerns. "It's not an apples-toapples or square-foot equation. What we offer is a lifestyle." To be sure, that lifestyle is not for everyone. Its appeal is for a certain mindset that values community and experience over possessions. The demographic is much wider than one might expect, including mostly millennials, but also adults with children, freelancers, and seniors; residents literally range from 8 to 80 years of age. Even for those who don't fit the tech and social profile, WeLive offers a provocative and still-evolving experiment in social living borne of convenience, efficiency, thoughtful design - and a very high quotient of cool. < (top) One of the most popular spaces is the centrally located laundry room, which sports pingpong and pool tables and video arcades. (left and above) Studio apartments include a Murphy bed that folds down over a built-in sofa. Client: WeWork/WeLive Client Team: Miguel McKelvey, Kyle O'Keefe Sally, Shay Lam, Matt Williamson, Quinton Kerns, Lauren Shaw, Mark Bardoff, Sarah Wiss, Aidan Pellegrino Architect: S9 Architecture Design Team: Sital Patel, AIA, Dave Gagne, AIA, Stephanie Lage, Cannelle Legler Design Consultant & Interiors: ARExA Design Team: Darrick Borowski, Assoc. AIA, Rik Ekstrom, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, Sean Karns, Assoc. AIA, Michael Kim, AIA, Chaerim Shin, Kristin Mueller, Tyler O'Rielley Structural Engineer: Severud Associates MEP/FP Engineer: Cosentini Associates Acoustical Engineer: Longman Lindsay Lobby Lighting Installation: Collaboration with Brendan Ravenhill Studio Vertical Transport: Jenkins & Huntington Envelope: Stone Engineering BIM Consultant: CASE Code Consultant: CCI Expeditors: William Vitacco Associates; KM Associates Construction Manager/General Contractor: The Sweet Construction Group JANET ADAMS STRONG, PH.D., is an architectural historian and author, and is principal of Strong and Partners communications. Authenticity + Innovation: Architecture Repurposed

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