Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: 4/18/16

Private West Village, NY Penthouse Terrace
New York, NY, USA
144 sf. Greenwall

Project of the Week Description & Details

Occupying the 18th floor of an Art Deco building in a landmark district in New York’s Greenwich Village, this 2,500 square foot terrace wraps the four sides of a penthouse apartment whose living space it nearly doubles. As an integral part of the clients’ living space, the terrace brings the domestic program outside into distinct ‘rooms.’ With a simple palette of steel, reclaimed teak, and stone, the terrace creates an integrated environment that bridges between the two distinct scales of the domestic single-story penthouse and the massive, building-scale presence of the parapet elements built to be seen from 18 stories below. With Tinmouth Chang Architects as Project Lead, the project embraces the technical challenges of rooftop construction by integrating them into its design language, inventing a floating ground plane, which acts as ballast to cantilever the stainless steel railing, achieving stability without anchoring to building surfaces. The railing itself becomes a garden element, supporting planting, lighting, and surfaces which give depth to the parapet edge.

The existing 15-foot-high, 15-foot-wide ugly tan brick wall was the 1928 building’s chimney and since it couldn’t be removed, the design team transformed the eyesore into the centerpiece of their terrace garden with vertical plantings and a modular slate waterfall enclosing the far end of the garden. During the 26-month remodeling project, landscape architect Linda Pollak of Marpillero Pollak Architects, in collaboration with John Tinmouth and David Seiter of Future Green Studio, designed a greenwall from Green Living Technologies. In all, 600 plants of ornamental grasses and trailing species in shades of green, silver and purple were embedded into the 24 panels which were bracketed to the chimney. The greenwall panels were pre-grown three months before installation and the plants are watered by a drip irrigation system. The Private West Village, New York Penthouse Terrace forms a complex and layered middle ground which mediates views to the city beyond.

Year: 2011
Owner: Private
Location: New York, NY, USA
Building Type: Multi-Family Residential
Type: Living Wall, Test/Research
System: Custom
Size: 144 sq.ft.
Slope: 100%
Access: Accessible, Private

Designers/Manufacturers of Record:

Project Lead, Penthouse Architect: John Tinmouth, Tinmouth Chang Architects
Terrace Architect and Green Wall Design: Linda Pollak, Marpillero Pollak Architects
Greenwall Planting Design: David Seiter, Future Green Studio
Greenwall System: Green Living Technologies International (GLTi)
Construction: Taocon Construction Management
Structural Engineer: Silman
Planting Specification, Supply & Installation: Semperflorens, Inc.
Stone and Porcelain Cladding: Stone Source
Lighting Design: PHT Lighting Design
Fabrication and Installation of Millwork Elements: Material Process Systems

View the PROJECT PROFILE to see ALL of the Photos and Additional Information about this particular project in The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database.

Project of the Week Video Feature

Watch the Private West Village, NY Penthouse Terrace Project of the Week Video below or see it on our GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube:

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