Skyline Watch: The Brave New Buildings of Cooper Square

JUNE 18, 2009

The downtown intersection of Cooper Square, Astor Place, Lafayette Street and Bowery is shaping up to be the city's showcase for modern architecture.

Though the NoHo area has long been a coveted spot for developers of high-profile designer residences, the skyline-stealing impact of what has become Manhattan's newest architects' alley has been more recent.

If you haven't taken the 6 train to Astor Place or Bleeker Street lately, a brief skyward glance will give you the full effect. The tall-masted white monolith that is the Carlos Zapata-designed Cooper Square Hotel will likely catch your eye first, momentarily giving the once-unremarkable square the look of a South Asian capital in boom time. The amoebic form of Astor Place gleams just to the north. Charles Gwathmey's once-controversial—though admittedly compelling—glass-covered residence stares down the newly-dwarfed Astor Place Cube across the street where skateboarders and puppy-punks loiter. The newest—and perhaps boldest—starlet in this newly-minted constellation is the not-yet-complete Cooper Union Building at 41 Cooper Square (it will be an academic center for Cooper Union), the latest project of architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis. The metal-skinned sculpture-meets-structure has been in the news since its mesh outer layer began to take shape—not only for its appearance, but also for the sustainability principles (energy use and natural ventilation, to name a few) that are the architect's specialty.

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Skyline Watch: The Brave New Buildings of Cooper Square

JUNE 18, 2009

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