British practice Heatherwick Studio has designed a glass lobby to link its High Line-straddling condo towers with a scooped roof that "barely touches" the park above.
Thomas Heatherwick's studio unveiled the Lobby Pavilion today, to follow the release of new renderings and the project's name Lantern House earlier this year.
The structure will link the two towers that are currently are under construction on either side of the High Line park, at 515 West 18th Street in Manhattan's Chelsea neighbourhood.
Stepped glass panels that range in height from 10 to 25 feet (three to seven metres) will form the longer walls of the pavilion, and dip down in the middle. A coppery coloured metal-seam roof will be placed on top and curve up around the railway track that form the structure of the High Line.
"People love to live in memorable places," said Heatherwick. "As the High Line's amazing riveted steel structure goes straight through the middle of our site, we knew we mustn't miss the chance to borrow all its texture and character to make an idiosyncratic arrival experience for the building's residents."
"To not compete with the soulful materiality of this historic piece of infrastructure, we designed a lobby that barely touches it and is slung from the east building to the west, with a roof structure that gently drapes, like a piece of textile," he added.
The interior of the 1,900-square-foot (177-square-metre) lobby will be punctured by a pa...