Advanced Fabrication
ROOFTOP CANOPY
Shade by day, light by night, beautiful object always. A canopy on the rooftop of this iconic building had to be everything and more.
HIGHLINE CANOPY
For a canopy on the roof of the Zaha Hadid building on the Highline, we used technology to make poetry: designing a cloud by day (as a thermoformed curved Corian sculpture blocks the sun) that becomes a light source by night (as thousands of perforations lit from within project the image of a cloud).
ORNAMENTAL STAIR
This apartment needed a stair and a partition—but it had to be a gorgeous work of art and also somehow see-through. No problem. We got this.
A DIVIDER THAT CONNECTS
How do you divide a space in two without cutting off its sightlines? Our ingenious partition — built of brass tubes that, by virtue of custom spiral laser cuts, appear to twist— allows inhabitants to enjoy a sense of seclusion while glimpsing the view beyond the wall.
The 16-foot screen, made with powder-coated steel columns that appear to twist, creates a swooping pattern that optimizes views from any position in the apartment. Gold and white paint on alternate sides of the screen enhances the illusion of the twisting metal. The three-axis laser-cut steel columns were fabricated in Lebanon and shipped to New York in three units. The screen is accompanied by a monolithic marble wall, which also connects to the bedroom level below.
STEEL CANTELIEVER STAIR
In building, the appearance of lightness can be the toughest effect to achieve. But that’s what made this office expansion take off: a stair engineered to reach up on tiptoe.
ON POINT
Since bisecting the company across floors could lead to a sense of disconnection, DF&A sought a solution that would make the whole office feel like one. The result is a dynamic, visually striking central stair that doubles as sculpture, appearing to leap into the floor above. A complex system of steel trusses, cloaked in a warm ash wood veneer, supports the monumental structure, which rests on just one edge atop the terrazzo base, seeming to defy the laws of physics.
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The task of designing a luxurious rooftop garden for a penthouse takes on heightened import when the apartment in question crowns the famous Zaha Hadid building at the Highline. But we relished the assignment, designing a space with custom elements inspired by Hadid's curvilinear forms and playful spirit.
When Rithm Capital hired us to design its new offices in a modern building on Broadway in Greenwich Village, we recognized that the project had two challenges: creating spatial and corporate coherence across two floors and bringing workers back to the office in the wake of the Covid lockdown. Bisecting companies by floor typically means death to connectivity. So we sought a solution that made one space out of two floors: a dynamic, visually striking, conversation-starting central wooden stair. The stair literally connects the two floors, but it also serves as a focal point and aesthetic motif for the office, an arresting wooden sculpture that appears poised to leap—and sets the tone for the sleek fixtures, exquisite art program, and event-worthy lounge spaces that turn the office into not just a place to work but the place to be
