WEINER TOWNHOUSE - live/work space for conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner and his wife Alice. New York, United States
The Greenwich Village townhouse is a 4-level home with a penthouse with green roof, designed to accommodate the life of an artist.
The front façade continues the historical street front of West 4th street while the back façade opens to the rear private yard with a much higher degree of transparency.
The front brick façade is pierced and plugged by three large bay windows, stacked vertically one for each floor above street level. The bay windows are made out of sections of stainless steel truck bodies. They stick out of the façade and house different programs at different levels.
The open stairs are repositioned across the back façade, freeing the interior spaces and organizing the mixed program vertically on simple open floors.
The live/work program is layered on alternating floors: the lower level houses the artist’s studio; the ground floor the living room and kitchen; the second floor the archive/management office; the third floor the master suite; the penthouse is used as a sun room that opens up on the planted green roof and it is topped by a trellis structure supporting photovoltaic panels for electricity. At every level, the open plan is pierced only by the vertical core that houses the elevator, bathrooms, storage, and mechanical equipment. The core is constructed as a galvanized-steel duct structure.
The house features: a green roof; photovoltaic panels; a high R-value translucent curtain-wall for the rear façade (by Kalwall), a highly efficient pre-manufactured radiant floor heating system (by Warmboard), natural rubber and wood finished floors, fluorescent and LED lighting, VOC-free paint, formaldehyde-free insulation, as well as energy-efficient appliances and mechanical/electrical equipment.
DATA / CREDITS:
Project Name: Weiner Townhouse
Building Type: live and work space
Design: LOT-EK, Ada Tolla + Giuseppe Lignano, Principals, Haruka Saito, Project Architect
Client: Lawrence + Alice Weiner
Location: West Village, New York
Size: 3,000 SF
Design: 2006
Completion: 2008
Consultants:
Structural + MEP Engineer.: Hanington Engineering
Sustainability Consultant: Buro Happold, Denzil Gallagher + Byron Stigge
Lighting Design: L’Observatoire International, Herves Descottes
Photography: Nikolas Koenig + Dean Kaufman
