785 Eighth Avenue (New York City, New York)

 skyscraper, condominiums, 2009_construction

566-foot, 42-story modernist residential building completed in 2009. Designed by Ismael Leyva Architects, it responds to the challenge of a small, wedge-shaped site. The tower fronts 8th Avenue, but the main building entrance is located in a small double-height extension on 48th Street, featuring a skylight and waterfall. The entry has glass doors, including a revolving door, with a glass wall and ceiling above. It is framed by grey, banded stone and has a stainless-steel canopy over the doors.

Due to the narrow width of the tower, most of the north side consists of a concrete shear wall. The east two-thirds of it have bands of darker-grey at the floor plates, with an angle to the right of its center, where it recessed back into the facade. The west third projects back out from the angled section, and is fully painted dark-grey. There is a narrow strip of glass at each end.

The east facade fronting the avenue has a grey stone-framed storefront at the ground floor, and a curtain wall of watery silver-blue glass up to a setback above the 6th floor. The 2nd-6th floors each have two white-framed casement windows, one on either end, joined by projecting, horizontal, copper-colored metal fins at the tops and bottoms, and at each floor plate. The set-back upper floors have a similar curtain wall, but within the fins, and with lighter-colored glass spandrels between floors. The most notable feature is the cascading tower of projecting blue glass balconies that gradually moves from north to south as it advances up the tower. The rear, west facade also has a silver glass curtain wall and projecting balconies, but these are in a straight line at the north half of the elevation.

The south facade continues the glass curtain wall, with a projecting, cantilevered section at the middle, offset to the west. This section has horizontal silver bands at each floor, and ends at the main roof line. Above the main roof line there is an angled glass crown, rising higher from the east to west, and punctuated with a circular black metal vent at the west end.

Skillful use of architectural elements like the curtain wall coupled with structural cantilevers allows increased floor area at the top of the building. The angular nature of the site is exacerbated in the triangular shapes of the penthouse. The tower has 122 condominium units. The ground floor consists of a commercial space, occupied by Open Loop bus tours, and the residential lobby, which extends to the outdoor garden in the rear.