Dancing Towers
Dancing Towers
467 Keap Street
Williamsburg, NY
68,000 sf retail & residential condominiums
Our client wanted an edgy distinctive design to compete in a design intensive market.
Our zoning analysis for the 17,000 sf site showed a relatively low FAR but a high height limit. We proposed a tall building with loft style 15’ floor to floor heights, which the Owner enthusiastically supported. The tower was developed as an efficient rectangle in plan. We ran clear glass corridors through the middle of the building from end to end, allowing people to see through its two halves. They were then bent in towards each other at the middle, not quite touching, as if leaning in and ‘dancing’.
The apartments have great natural light and views, and the top units have panoramic multi-level terraces. The Case Study below describes how we controlled construction costs with these unique shapes.
exterior
aerial views
apartment interiors
plans
The design called for tower components ‘leaning’ in towards each other, but the budget could not afford the high cost of angled columns seen in many international projects.
Early on we focused on affordable ways to build the design, convening meetings with key players including concrete superstructure sub-contractors. An industry standard held that a concrete slab may cantilever 7-8’ without appreciably increasing construction cost. We used this maxim creatively, cantilevering the top floor slabs 7’, decreasing to 0’ in the middle and out again to 7’ at the base. The result is a tower that ‘bends’ on the outside, while keeping straight columns and standard floor slab construction within.