Archinect - News

See the views from NYC’s highest outdoor residential space at 15 Hudson Yards

2020-02-19T19:18:00-05:00

Adding to Hudson Yards’ height superlatives, the city’s highest outdoor residential amenity space has opened at 15 Hudson Yards. Rising 900 feet in the air, “Skytop” features 6,000 square feet of curvy indoor-outdoor space, which follows the shape of the building’s crown. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with interiors by Rockwell Group, the amenity space offers unobstructed views of the Hudson River and beyond.

Image by Scott Frances for Related-Oxford

Sex toy architecture? "XXX-HY: A Luxury Real Estate Dildo Experience"

2019-10-04T11:45:00-04:00

Architecture practice Wolfgang & Hite has designed architectural sex toys reimagine each of the new buildings at the Hudson Yards. “There’s a lot to love in NYC’s recent building boom, but the city and developers have been jerking each other off for decades, so naturally we wanted to join in the fun… Masturbation is a great metaphor for the latest wave of development in New York City," writes the group on their website.

The collection has been named XXX-HY: A Luxury Real Estate Dildo Experience. Each piece has been scaled to 1"= 100' and includes Heatherwick Studio's Vessel as an "amateur buttplug," DSR's Shed as a clitoral stimulator, and KPF's "gargantuan roof deck tower as a magnum fisting dildo - recommended for those without a fear of heights." Also in the bunch is SOM's "super-slender" 25 Hudson Yards.

"Sex does the body good. After the fiery criticisms of Hudson Yards this year, we thought city officials might need a healthy outlet for working through some of that guilt," wr...

High-end homes are going biometric

2019-06-24T19:11:00-04:00

Little by little, new biometric technologies are making inroads into the domestic sphere.

The Wall Street Journal reports that digital fingerprint lock and facial-recognition systems have become a fact of life for some of the wealthiest homeowners and now come standard for many high-end developments.

The Diller Scofidio + Renfro-, Rockwell Group-, and Ismael Leyva Architects-designed 15 Hudson Yards tower, for example, comes equipped with fingerprint scanner technology, according to the article.

Meanwhile, 2000 Ocean, a TEN Arquitectos-designed condominium tower in Miami, goes one step further by using a "passive facial-recognition system" in its lobby to alert the concierge that you have arrived. "Once you are in the elevator," the project's developer, Shahab Karmely of KAR Properties, told WSJ, "you have to use facial-recognition or a fob to get to the private landing of your unit." Karmely adds, "It’s a different level of security. You can leave your fob behind, someone can ...

Hudson Yards and Stern-designed towers dominate NYC's ultraluxury real estate sales

2019-06-11T14:03:00-04:00

Manhattan’s latest crop of new luxury developments continues to attract a steady stream of buyers. At the ultra-pricey 220 Central Park South in Midtown, the grand limestone skyscraper designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, four more units officially sold, including New York City’s most expensive closing in May: a three-bedroom aerie for nearly $26.5 million.

The NYT's Vivian Marino provides an update on the biggest recent luxury real estate transactions in New York City with notably pricey purchases at Robert A.M. Stern's 220 Central Park South and 250 West 81st Street towers and also at the newly opened Hudson Yards mammoth development.

"Philip I. Kent, the former chief executive of Turner Broadcasting System, was one of the many buyers at 15 Hudson Yards, the megaproject’s first residential tower. (Oh, and the architect who helped design that building also bought an apartment — in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.)," writes Marino.