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PROJECT REPORT: HOTELS, RESTAURANTS & BARS
The building “replicates a typical composition of a Washington Heights block, deconstructs it, and then reassembles it into a stack of boxes”
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n New York City’s Washington Heights, at the very top of Manhattan Island, adjacent to the Bronx, sits the first major project in the US by Netherlands-based architects MVRDV. Named Radio.181, the 22-storey mixed use high-rise incorporates office, hotel, retail, and event space, assembled in a colourful composition of asymmetrically-stacked blocks intended to express the vibrancy and diversity of the surrounding neighbourhood. This has been, during design and construction (and will be in operation, once opened this summer), a high profile project, being a large volume on the thinnest part of Manhattan, and one which also fulfilled a local need due to Washington Heights’ previous lack of hotel and office space. The project started on site in 2018 and is due to open to the public this summer. The scheme was initiated by developers
Youngwoo & Associates, who identified the site, next to Washington Bridge, as being ideal for such a scheme. Having established a robust relationship over the years, Youngwoo approached the architects to come up with a design concept that was at once “bold and fitting” for the practice’s first big statement in New York City. While the pair of firms had already developed various concepts and designs for multiple locations across the States, Radio.181 was
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the first to reach the construction stage. The building sits on Amsterdam
Avenue, between 180th and 181st Street, at a bustling intersection opposite the bridge, which is a major link connecting Manhattan to the Bronx. Having been occupied by an automotive repair shop/ gas station for over six decades, the site had deteriorated and was in dire need of rejuvenation, and a “spark” in terms of design that would ignite regeneration in Washington Heights, say the architects. “It felt like a scar on the neighbourhood that such a prominent location, facing the bridge and Amsterdam Avenue, lacked any sense of community,” says Fedor Bron, associate director at MVRDV.
Community first From the outset, and in particular because of its prominent location at the junction terminating the bridge, a huge emphasis was put on designing a build that served and prioritised the local community. The goal therefore was a building that had the ability to accommodate multiple functions, while being formed carefully to fit the surrounding context. In the early stages, MVRDV explored several concepts, all of which were “very different in size,” says Mick van Gemert, associate architect at the practice.
ADF MAY 2022
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