150 Charles Street has won this year’s AIA Housing Award in the category of Multifamily Housing. These awards, presented by the AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community, emphasize the importance of good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit, and a valuable national resource. Overlooking the Hudson River, this building’s design emphasizes direct access to nature while also providing a high quality indoor environmental.

This luxury residential building between Charles Street and West 10th Street, overlooking the West Side waterfront, encompasses an acre lot, with approximately 300,000 square feet of residential space, and incorporates the abandoned Whitehall warehouse into the new project. Over 30,000 square feet of landscaped courtyards, green roofs and planted terraces are integrated throughout the complex.

A vision of weaving new development into the natural and historic environment of the West Village has shaped this project from the outset. Modern logic typically would balance a residential tower within a park, yet 150 Charles asserts that new growth can thoroughly integrate nature into the built environment. The resulting building is a careful composition of stacked volumes that gradually setback, preserving the neighborhood’s scale and romantic character. Where the warehouse’s tarred roof once occupied the majority of the block, two terraced, landscaped volumes now surround a lush central courtyard.

GMS provided the structural design and structural special inspections and also provided assistance to the architect in developing façade design details for a new 16 story multi-use project. The enclosure is designed as a metal and glass curtain wall beginning above the existing 4-story warehouse. The building is certified LEED gold.

Read the award showcase here

Read more in Architect Magazine’s coverage