Swanke Hayden Connell Designing Harlem Office Tower

Bruce Ross Associates Inc.

NEW YORK, NY – Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA) is designing a

600,000 square foot, 21-story office tower at 125th Street and Park Avenue in New York City. Developed by Vornado Realty Trust, the project will be the first major office tower built in Harlem in more than 30 years.

Called Harlem Park, the development is adjacent to the first Manhattan stop on the MetroNorth commuter rail line. It will include approximately 82,000 square feet of retail space fronting both Park Avenue and 125th Street, the main retail thoroughfare in Harlem. The building will achieve a Silver level of LEED certification.

Set on an 85-foot podium, the 18-story main shaft of the tower features a unitized aluminum and glass curtainwall system with integrated vertical terra cotta color fins that create a unique enclosure echoing the predominant masonry construction of surrounding buildings.

According to Roger Klein, design principal for SHCA, the new tower, while taller than the surrounding neighborhood, is designed to complement the aesthetics and scale of the neighborhood. "The design is intended to enhance the transparency of the building, and harmonize with the surrounding masonry neighborhood," he pointed out. "Typically, the design of a tower would express its verticality. In this case, we countered the verticality with a composition of smaller-scale ‘stacked boxes', which grounds the building in the scale of the neighborhood.

"There is great visibility from the Metro North Station, as one travels over the Triborough Bridge onto the 125th Street, and from Central Park," he added. "As a result, Harlem Park will be a true icon for Harlem and the city. In particular, the top box in the stack of compositional boxes – designed to be illuminated at night – is defined as a distinct cubic form."