New York, New York, USA
David Chipperfield and Billy Prendergast from David Chipperfield Architects, together with Stonehill Taylor have designed The Bryant, a 32-story mixed-use tower building for HFZ Capital Group located on the southwest corner of Bryant Park, a nine-acre public park in Midtown Manhattan, which comprises a hotel that extends to the 13th floor, with private luxury residences above.
The Bryant has recently been awarded a 2022 American Architecture Award Honorable Mention, by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Surrounded by historic landmark buildings, it faces the New York Public Library to the north and is situated near the celebrated Beaux-Arts style Knox Building to the east.
These two components are served by two separate lobbies at street level, with retail on both sides of each entrance animating the street front.
The building articulates three separate parts following the traditional tripartite composition of the New York tower: base, middle, and crown.
The base occupies the full width of the site and contains a double-height ground floor as well as the first four levels of the hotel.
A decreased footprint, together with an increased floor-to-ceiling height for the hotel bar and lounge, marks the start of the central section.
This setback creates an outdoor terrace accessible to both hotel guests and residential tenants while maintaining the elevation pattern of alternating medium and high-rise buildings along 40th Street.
The crown is established by double-height spaces for the two penthouses at the top of the tower.
Adhering to the conditions of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the façade relates to the historic buildings nearby, offering a contemporary interpretation.
The concrete mix contains different aggregates identical to the stone varieties found in the neighboring buildings’ masonry façades.
These polished precast concrete slabs and columns follow a tectonic grid composition lending the building a classical appearance and firmly asserting its place within the streetscape.
The concrete building structure extends into the interior of the residences, reinforcing a sense of architectural substance and identity.
Built-in furnishings conceal storage spaces and appliances while dividing the spaces, removing the need for partition walls, and allowing uninterrupted views around the perimeter.
Floor-to-ceiling windows open onto Juliet balconies on the north and south façades for most of the residences, while the penthouses have double-height, colonnaded terraces with views over the city and park.
Project: The Bryant
Architects: David Chipperfield Architects
Designer: David Chipperfield
Project Directors: David Chipperfield and Billy Prendergast
Project Architect: Mattias Kunz
Design Team: Mira Abad, Pau Bajet, Gonçalo Baptista, Kleopatra Chelmi, Florian Dirschedl, Gabriel Fernandez-Abascal, Micha Gamper, Ines Gavelli, Maria Giramé, Christopher Harvey, Johannes Leskien, Nic Moore, and Sergio Pereira
Associate Architects: Stonehill Taylor LLC.
Structural Engineers: Severud Associates
Lighting Consultants: George Sexton Associates
General Contractor: T.G. Nickel & Associates, LLC.
Real Estate Consultants: Corcoran Sunshine
Client: HFZ Capital Group
Photographers: Simon Menges
