Jean Nouvel, the building's architect described the this 23-storey condominium tower on 11th Avenue in New York as "a vision machine" designed to create visual excitement for both residents inside the building and passers-by on the street.
Over ensuing years Nouvel has woven art, history, cultural references and new building technologies into provocative architectural contrasts between inside and outside, intimacy and the urban network, and has become renowned as one of the most original designers of his generation. Nouvel's latest glass and steel landmark, a direct material and conceptual descendant of his Paris tour de force is 100 11th, a 23-story tower.
Approximately 1,650 different windowpanes comprise the most highly engineered and complex curtain wall ever constructed. 100 11th overlooks the Hudson River at the intersection of 19th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan freshest residential neighborhood, The Highline District.
The building's gently curving curtain wall of different sized panes of colorless glass - each set in a unique angle and torque - sheaths one of the most meticulously customized, high performance residential addresses in the nation. The curtain wall of 100 11th captures daylight differently over the course of the day and the year. The surface that seems to brighten and go dark as if by computer program is, in fact, made dynamic by the movement of the Earth. These daily and seasonal changes foster a connection to nature. The dazzling window pattern frames splendid views from within the tower while producing an exterior texture that serves as a poetic analog for the vibrancy, density and changeability of New York City.
Every apartment features floor-to-ceiling window walls including operable windows oriented to the south and west. Along these window walls, floors are finished with an extra layer of nearly imperceptible transparent gloss, to boost incoming sunlight into rooms.
In concept and design, the building is a direct relative of the Parisian Institute of the Arab World which Nouvel built 20 years earlier.
