Case Studies: Herzog & de Meuron designs the Chrystie Street Hotel with Wicona facades

The building also houses a residential area with interior design by John Pawson

The Chrystie Street Hotel, designed by the winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architects Herzog & de Meuron, is located in the Bowery, a cultural and artistic district of Manhattan. In an eclectic neighbourhood where buildings of different types, volumes and architectural quality coexist, the project is built with the main objective of creating a hotel with a residential component, giving it a diverse mix of uses in order to «create a city within the city”.

Since the structure had already been predefined, 18 floors for the hotel have been stacked one above the other, followed by eight floors for residential use. Both have been differentiated, but are unified at the same time in the same slender tower that rises up over the foundation.

The structure of the building opens up to the outside and highlights the grid of the large glazed window bays framed with polished aluminium, designed with the WICTEL EL SSG modular curtain wall by WICONA and the system's own projecting windows. This design introduces depth to the facade on the exterior, and liberates the interior from freestanding columns. The building's structural skeleton is what defines its architecture.

“To introduce a sense of scale and to further foster the expression of each individual floor, each column is slightly inclined. The prominent corner of the building facing Chrystie Street is where the two geometries of the inclined columns meet. Rather than giving one direction priority, the two directions are braided together. The result is a sculptural corner column that becomes the visual anchor for the entire building”, the architects explain.

WICONA custom design for facades

The Chrystie Street Hotel has a total of 367 rooms, conceived like miniature suites. Their design follows a modern, discreet and simple line, which generates warm and welcoming rooms, making the most of the space that is available. Each room has a large window that provides the maximum amount of natural light and allows you to enjoy a privileged view of New York City. In addition, the inclination of these windows allows the sky to be reflected in the glass, granting some extra privacy.

The project has more than 6,500 m2 of facades made with WICTEC EL SSG, where tilted projecting windows have also been structurally inserted into the system, custom designed for the hotel and which make the building feel lighter. This facade model is composed of a perimeter support structure in lacquered aluminium that incorporates a patented WICONA movement absorption system using marine-quality EPDM rubber seals that provide greater air-tightness and facilitate and ensure their proper assembly. The windows, designed from floor to ceiling, feature corners without wall studs and custom designed, extra-wide glass panels to provide unobstructed 270 and 360-degree views of New York City and the surrounding area, while providing transparency to the inside spaces.

The views and transparency of the upper floors are maximised in the residential tower and the two upper floors of the hotel, which have large outdoor terraces. The full and half-floor residences, located in the slender tower on the upper levels, have qualities similar to the building's frame, with a special emphasis on open space and light. The sophisticated interior design is the work of the prestigious architect John Pawson, who has left his mark through the building's spectacular minimalist interiors.

Project: Chrystie Street Hotel
Location: New York
Architectural Firm: Herzog & de Meuron
Facades: Intercom
WICONA Solutions used: WICTEC EL SSG facades with integrated projecting windows
Photography: Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán / Rocío Romero)

Source: Wicona
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