The New York-based firm ODA has recently completed 2222 Jackson, an 11-story, 175-unit rental project in Long Island City, a mere stone’s throw away from MoMA PS1. The pixel-like, concrete-poured exterior is intended to complement the nearby museum, while simultaneously encapsulating the designers’ “larger mission”. That is to say, the building is designed to work “within”, rather than against, zoning constraints, representing the practice’s focus on “innovating architectural morphology in the interest of improving not only its residents’ everyday experience, but their general quality of life.”

2222 Jackson Avenue from ODA on Vimeo.

The building was conceived as a simple, modular grid with a sequence of 12-feet wide bays. Each studio apartment, which are 32 feet in length and which occupy the width of one bay, projects seven feet past the façade line, in the process producing mid-facade corner windows as well as terraces for the apartments above. This results in 30% more outdoor space than the original footprint would have allowed. In total, the building has 50 terraces.

“By playing with the massing in this way, ODA rejects what would otherwise be a generic rental box, instead producing a new template for working within common zoning constraints: an axonometric structure with a uniquely articulated façade accommodating substantial outdoor areas (highly coveted though often conventionally impractical amenities in many urban environments),” write the architects. “The firm’s straightforward, modular design also allows for vastly increased flexibility and adaptability in layout, while simultaneously facilitating a simplified, streamlined, and highly efficient construction process.”

Check out our recent interview with ODA here. More images in the gallery.