Walk Through the New U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey

2023 Best of Year Winner for Institutional

Balancing openness and security is tricky business. But it is managed with the dexterity of a diplomat at a new 265,600-square-foot U.S. embassy compound in Ankara, Turkey, by Ennead Architects. Internal courtyards reference Turkey’s architectural traditions, and also provide secure outdoor spaces for staff to gather. Gridded screens of high-performance concrete based on established regional precedents surround the main courtyard, abetting solar control and privacy. Interiors are just as eloquent, with a monumental lobby highlighting local Marmara marble, native woods, and locally made ceramics.

RICHARD OLCOTT; KEVIN MC CLURKAN; KATE MANN; FELICIA BERGER; CHRISTOPHER HALLORAN; STEFAN ABEL; KRISTEN
ALEXANDER; PETER BROUGHTON; KORI CAMACHO; EDWARD CHANG; MAGGIE CHECO; DARLA ELSBERND; ERKAN EMRE; DALIA HAMATI; WANLIKA KAEWKAMCHAND; JANICE LEONG; RYAN LEWANDOWSKI; SANDRA MARCATILI; STEPH MAUER; AMY MIELKE; DONA OROZOVA; LYNETTE SALAS; SUZANNE TROIANO; MARGARET TYRPA.

A Residential Complex Soars Over the Waterfront in Brooklyn

As the East River snakes between the shores of four of New York’s five boroughs, it shapes islets, tributaries, and peninsulas along its way. These surprisingly saltwater banks that have historically been ports for the domestic and international shipping routes docking in the Big Apple today are prime real estate—so long as the buildings meet 100-year flood-plain requirements. Manhattan’s were the first to be developed, with a close stock of steel-and-glass skyscrapers, brick public housing, and seawall-protected esplanade parks. Queens followed suit with a focus on residential towers, their unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline affording enviable urban sunsets.

But it’s Brooklyn, the city’s second-priciest and most populous borough, that is making big waves in luxury waterfront living—its in­no­vative buildings giving residents a skyline of their own to boast. Since the 2005 residential rezoning of the Greenpoint and Williamsburg shores, towers, parks, and even some beaches have made northern Brooklyn one of the hottest markets for young professionals, generationally wealthy coeds, and even the odd celebrity (Adam Driver, Patrick Wilson). Now, on the bulbous landmass where it meets Queens at Newtown Creek is Eagle + West, a ground-up, 860,700-square-foot complex of high-end, market-rate, and affordable rental apartments by OMA (architecture), Marmol Radziner (public and amenity spaces), and Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners (apartment interiors) is helping contribute a renewed relationship to its misnomer estuary.

Eagle + West Offers Luxury Waterfront Living in Greenpoint 

The project’s site, the 22-acre Greenpoint Landing, has naturally sweeping vistas of its surrounding skylines and waterways, so its architectural challenge came in arranging its massive program—745 apartments across two towers and a low-rise, plus two retail spaces, a parking garage, and 42,000 square feet of indoor/outdoor amenities, including two pools, coworking spaces, a podcast studio, and a playground—to respect its neighboring town houses, which top out at seven stories. Zoning allowed for both a 400- and a 300-foot-tall tower set 40 feet apart. OMA New York partner Jason Long increased that distance to 60 and imagined their profiles as “fraternal twins,” stepping back and toward each other in seven- to eight-story terraced and cantilevered blocks like puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit. These 40- and 30-floor siblings are connected by a two-story, 210-foot-long Vierendeel truss-and-glass bridge that houses the indoor pool, a lounge for the outdoor pool, a fitness center, and a double-height reservable room for resident functions, all topped by a 1,000-square-foot green roof.

“We created a composition that changes as you move around it,” Long says of Eagle + West’s monumental massing, “because it opens and closes in a series of different gateways as you look through the building, either toward the Manhattan skyline or out over Brooklyn.” To mitigate the scale of the towers, fronting the lower density streetside is a seven-story structure of affordable-housing units with its own gym and event spaces. And where there is an entrance to a residential lobby (there are three), the facade is notched inward, like the triangular cantilevers overhead and the shadows cast by their facades, shingled in white precast concrete.

Ample Amenities and Private Balconies

To complement the incredible waterway views, an indoor-outdoor living experience at Eagle + West was important. Beyer Blinder Belle, also the project’s executive architect, conceived 150 unique apartment layouts for the range of studios to three-bedrooms, with oak flooring, concretelike countertops, porcelain-tile backsplashes, and two color palettes—dawn and dusk—to take advantage of their 8-foot-square picture windows. The diversity of options is “about not pigeonholing prospective tenants,” BBB senior associate Kimberly Cornell explains, “because everyone has a different sensibility.”

Native Plants Create a Biophilic Haven

Radziner’s firm took a similar approach to the project’s landscape design, which he describes as “not too buttoned-up.” Wind-resistant plants like prairie dropseed, little bluestem, and purple coneflower along with deciduous, native trees like red maple and pagoda dogwood create a varied, seasonal tapestry within their hardscape bounds and at the ground level. Along the waterfront, Eagle + West adds a new landscaped plaza to Greenpoint’s public esplanade. On a late-summer day, as new residents were just settling in, many of its tables and chairs were already occupied by neighbors.

Inside Eagle + West, Greenpoint’s Newest Residential Development

beyer blinder belle architects and planners: carlos cardoso; cassie walker; andrew jacobs; james sullivan.

marmol radziner: leo marmol; ashley nath; aista sobouti; matt jackson; morgane manoha; abby rutherford; martina roth.

oma: yusef ali dennis; christine yoon; remy bertin; jingyi bi; sam biroscak; titouan chapouly; ken chongsuwat; marie-claude fares; yashar ghasemkhani; anders grinde; wesley leforce; chong ying pai; nathan petty; andres rabano; laylee salek; alan song; wo hong wu; soojung yoo; steven young; juan pablo zepeda.

thornton tomasetti: facade.

focus lighting: light­ing consultant.

mtwtf: custom signage.

lolita cros; picture room: art consultants.

desimone consulting engineers: structural engineer.

cosentini associates: mep.

langan engineering & environmental services: civil engineer.

scanga innovative woodworking: millwork.

new line structures: general contractor.

de sede: sectionals (lobby 1), tan lounge chairs (lobby 2).

allied maker: wood floor lamp (lounge 1).

emmanuelle simon: gray barrel chair.

adam otlewski: shaded floor lamps (lobby 1, lobby 2, reserve room).

stahl + band: cocktail table (lobby 2).

pulpo: round side table.

suite ny: dining chairs (reserve room).

abra lighting: custom cantilever light.

&tradition: green sectionals.

juniper design group: ceiling fixtures (mailroom), table lamps (great room).

ahrend: chairs (coworking lounge).

filzfelt: wallcovering.

serge mouille: sconces.

stone source: floor tile.

maharam: rug.

gordon: chairs (great room).

caesarstone: counter­top (kitchen).

treefrog veneer: cabinetry veneer.

florim: backsplash tile.

kährs: flooring (kitchen, living area).

rustico tile: decking (pool).

artless: bench.

walker zanger: pool tile.

sto: ceiling surfacing.

heath ceramics: mantel tile (great room).

abc stone: mantel stone.

netzero: fireplace.

moroso: chairs, sofas.

made by choice: round side table.

amara rugs: custom rugs.

hakwood: wood flooring.

anthology woods; shinnoki: oak paneling.

dunn-edwards; ppg industries; sherwin-williams company: paint.

bpdl: concrete facade panels.

interpane: facade glass.

Perched on a Rocky Overlook, This Home Offers Striking Views in Bedford, New York

2022 Best of Year Winner for Large Country House

Talk about a drop-dead site. This 6,900-square-foot home perches, Fallingwater-style, on a rocky promontory overlooking a lake—actually a decommissioned early 20th–century quarry—bordered by a dense forest and a newly created waterfall.

Interior Design Hall of Fame members Steven Harris and Lucien Rees-Roberts, founders of their respective eponymous firms, made the most of the location with stacked glass-box volumes that intersect perpendicularly and cantilever out over the cliff. Rooms are designed to maximize views through mahogany-framed windows, while finishes and furniture were curated to connect thematically and palette-wise to the structure’s surroundings. Note the double-height entrance hall, with Ceppo di gris limestone flooring, a custom mottled-brick accent wall, and a sculptural spiral staircase that corkscrews down to the lower level, partially embedded in the bedrock. Stone also features in more intimate spaces, like the primary bath, with a Cristallo marble–topped cerused-oak vanity and Perla Venata marble flooring. The cantilever itself is given over to the living room, where floor-to-ceiling glass and an extended roof plane (planted with sedum) accentuate the floating quality. Here, a custom “smoke” resin coffee table, an Isamu Noguchi Akari light sculpture, and Franco Albini’s Tre Pezzi chair jibe with the surrounding landscape, upgraded with bluestone terraces and a free-form pool that nods to the lake.

Steven Harris Architects: steven harris; john woell; kevin blusewicz

rees roberts + partners: lucien rees-roberts; david kelly; deborah hancock; jaclyn cirasola; regina cassorla

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Rockwell Group Earns a Best of Year Award for the Moynihan Train Hall in New York

2021 Best of Year winner for Transportation – Small

The busiest transportation hub in the Western hemisphere, Pennsylvania Station’s current iteration has long been scorned as a poor replacement for the original McKim, Mead, and White building that was considered a beaux arts masterpiece. An ongoing expansion and renovation project hopes to restore it to its former glory beginning with the newly opened Moynihan Train Hall, an annex across the street by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill that relieves congestion by providing access to most of the station’s 21 tracks. Accordingly, Rockwell Group designed a ticketed waiting area for Amtrak and Long Island Railroad customers that brings the glamour back to travel.

Interior Design Hall of Fame member David Rockwell took inspiration from classic train stations, especially the old Penn; after all, the new hall is housed in the landmarked James A. Farley Building, designed by McKim, Mead, and White nearly concurrently. Curved benches and rounded walls are made of solid walnut slats, all of it highlighted by custom vintage-look sconces. That inviting material, along with nickel and bronze, were chosen to bring warmth to the 6,000-square-foot space. In addition to the four bench bays, there are freestanding high-tops served by custom-height barstools. Both are upholstererd in yellow and blue leatherlike, easy-to-clean vinyl, the latter color repeated in a glass installation that’s been laser-etched with graphics reminiscent of the framework of the hall’s roof. On other walls, photographs by Stan Douglas depict historic scenes from the original station.

Rockwell Group: David Rockwell; Richard Chandler; Dionysios Kaltis; Hilli Wuerz; Emir Dogan; Hayden Minick

JG Neukomm Architecture Breathes New Life into a Decades-Old Manhattan Residential Building

When envisioning a fresh aesthetic for a decades-old Manhattan residential tower, architect and designer Jean-Gabriel Neukomm looked well beyond the city’s bustling streets for inspiration. Drawing on his own photographs of Joshua Tree National Park in California and the deserts of New Mexico, the color and material palette for The Landon, a 329-unit residential building in Midtown West, began to take shape. “I was initially taken by the relationship of Manhattan’s West side to the American Southwest—two disparate places historically connected by a thin rail line—as a starting point in our design,” shares Neukomm, founder of his namesake firm. “To flesh that idea out, I turned to some of my images… I liked the images’ soft, dusky palettes, and how those could straddle color, tone, and texture.”

Neukomm even integrated a few of his photographs throughout, building on the subdued yet colorful palette. The resulting space is warm and inviting with plenty of room to unwind. In addition to renovating the existing apartment units, as well as the lobby and amenity spaces, the JGNA team converted a former mechanical space into a roof lounge and terrace. The team also redesigned the façade, adding a canopy with laser cut perforations to allow natural light to filter down to the street level. Inside, an oversized planter housing four trees partitions the expansive lounge area, which remains free of columns given its former use as a basketball court. An abstract sun motif even offers a subtle nod to the desert heat, beckoning guests to sink into one of the many plush chairs and stay awhile.