Battery Park City, already home to some of the
greenest apartment and
condo buildings in the Big Apple, will soon add another major sustainable building to its portfolio. Set to open this fall, the
Digital Water Pavilion in the
Battery Park City Community Center by
Hanrahan Meyers Architects is a 55,000 square foot structure designed as a "built landscape" that's aiming for
LEED Platinum certification. The star of the new center is a 550-foot curved glass wall etched with a digital bar code that can be activated by smartphone wielding visitors to play a specially written composition by
composer Michael Schumacher. The design seamlessly incorporates sustainability, music, and our surrounding landscape into an interactive destination.
The etched bar code on the curved arcade wall is a patterned interpretation of Schumacher’s piece WATER. Perhaps not so coincidentally, from a distance, the etchings look like small streams of water flowing over the glass. Visitors will be able to play the piece at will, and the composition will constantly play at a low volume in three public courtyards. Surrounding the Digital Water Wall will be a 16,000 square foot terrace designed by SCAPE landscape architects. Even here, the ground will feature a pattern of dots and lines representing WATER created in the paving pattern by using bluestone tiles.
The glass wall sits across from two swimming pools and dance studios inside the building, and on the lawn outside, there are two ball fields and a soccer field. The curve of the wall follows a new promenade that allows visitors to view and access the fields. The 2-story Community Center building also features a state-of-the-art theater, a gymnasium, and several classrooms. SCAPE incorporated green roof technologies on the building, and various design motifs will incorporate water.
The terrace and Community Center are the last parts of the Battery Park City North Neighborhood to be completed. The architects expect to welcome visitors to the center this fall.
+ Hanrahan Meyers Architects
+ SCAPE
Via Curbed
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