305 East 44th St.
The new, super tall and super skinny, residential luxury condominium architecture continues to amaze me.
This new evolutionary skyscraper, where the footprint is often less than 10,000 square feet, is ideal for residential vertical urban living. ODA Architecture has plans at 305 East 44th Street for a tower featuring open-air terraces between the floors. “There is a huge disconnect between how we live in our cities and what we need, as human beings, for quality of life,” said ODA’s founder and executive director Eran Chen. “I don’t think that we should be forced to choose between enduring in the city, or escaping to suburban areas”.
305 East 44th Street
The garden terraces that define this building are full-floor sculptural gardens equal to the footprint of the building with forms made of glass-fiber reinforced concrete combined with lush vegetation. The sixteen-foot height allows direct sunlight to bathe the gardens. All gardens are accessible from each apartment and are positioned every two or three floors through the upper half of the building. The functional engineering design of the gardens significantly reduces the wind load on the structure and prevents the tower swaying in the wind. This wind “flow through” design was first seen in the 1,396 ft 430 Park Avenue tower, as empty windowless floors, 430 Park may want to consider retrofitting these floors with gardens for their residents too.
305 East 44th Street
New York developer, Triangel Assets, will construct the 600-foot 41-story tower with each floor plate measuring 2,700 square feets (250 square meters). The tower will contain 44 residential units with one, two, or three bedrooms. The plan is to include a duplex penthouse with its own full story terrace. Conceptually, the penthouse residents have enough garden space to plant a vegetable garden to be food self-sufficient on their lofty perch. Building amenities will offer; automated parking (which is a real plus for this mid-town location), a lounge, swimming pool, and a fitness center. The ground floor will be a premium retail space, hopefully with fine restaurant or café for residents to enjoy the street level ambiance. The neighborhood is rich with many world class restaurants. My favorite is Yasuda Sushi just around the corner where they serve celestial morsels of the freshest fish in the city.