Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture

Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Image 2 of 45Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Interior Photography, Living Room, Table, Windows, ChairUpper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Exterior Photography, Windows, FacadeUpper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Windows, ChairUpper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - More Images+ 40

More SpecsLess Specs
Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Interior Photography, Living Room, Table, Windows, Chair
© Alan Tansey

Text description provided by the architects. The reinvention of a badly degraded, but significant 1879 Neo-Grec townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side negotiates and balances the building’s history and context with a desire for a forward-looking, contemporary residence. This is accomplished largely through an exceptional attention to craft, augmented by digital methods for design, coordination, and a broadly collaborative approach.

Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Image 38 of 45
Context

The machine-produced decoration and crisp, incised ornamental surfaces that are characteristic of the Neo-Grec style were projected forward to a contemporary context, informing current and forward-looking processes of making like computer controlled milling and other contemporary manufacturing methods.

Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Windows, Chair
© Alan Tansey
Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Image 40 of 45
All plans
Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Interior Photography, Stairs, Windows, Handrail
© Alan Tansey

Conceived as both a family home and a setting for large-scale entertaining and events, the house is organized around multi-directional and multi-level circulation. Opportunities for light, air, and circulation to enliven the interior and exterior on the highly constrained site were developed through generous vertical openings and glazed double height spaces that emphasize the building’s grand proportions and create visual and spatial connections between floors.

Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Image 42 of 45
Circulation

Notable collaborations enabled by this design approach include a site-specific installation by artist Sarah Oppenheimer, integrated into the top floor of the building. Comprised of a flush walkable skylight, an aluminum manifold, and a front-silvered mirror, the artwork reflects a perpetually vertical slice of sky into the space of the main stair and library, and introduces a skewed angle into the overall geometry of the mid-block building, as well as a strong linkage between interior and exterior spaces that also informs the design of the rooftop penthouse, exterior spaces, and the rear facade.

Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Image 13 of 45
© Alan Tansey

The facade makes extensive use of sculpted terracotta elements, and incorporates a vertical garden, designed in collaboration with SUNY conservation botanists, that features a host of native woodland flora. Some plantings used are federally endangered species due to the impact of climate change, and are being propagated for the first time as a test case in urban conservation gardening. Intensive environmental analysis informed the geometry of the facade and planter elements which creates passively differentiated nano gradients of temperature, exposure, and moisture for a variety of native plantings.

Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Image 43 of 45
Rear facade section
Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Interior Photography, Brick, Facade, Glass
© Alan Tansey
Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Image 39 of 45
Scheme

Throughout the house, works of design by emerging and independent American designers and studios is integrated with significant works of modernist design from Italy, Scandinavia, and the United States. Much of the contemporary furniture was custom designed for the house primarily through designer commissions, including a number of custom pieces by the architects who are solely responsible for the project’s architecture as well its interior design.

Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture - Interior Photography, Living Room, Bed
© Alan Tansey

Project gallery

See allShow less

Project location

Address:New York, NY, United States

Click to open map
Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Upper Eastside Townhouse / Michael K Chen Architecture" 27 Jun 2018. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/897045/upper-eastside-townhouse-michael-k-chen-architecture> ISSN 0719-8884

© Alan Tansey

纽约上东区住宅改造 / Michael K Chen Architecture

You've started following your first account!

Did you know?

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.