This dramatic new luxury residential building is the new landmark project from DDG architects and developers. Located at the gateway to the MEPA District, 345 Meatpacking was mid-design when Hurricane Sandy affected New York. The catastrophic event inspired the creation of a resilient landscape that would be sustainable and, more importantly, responsive to the increasingly unpredictable climate. The result is a unique integration of landscape elements into the building envelope in the form of vertical green screens, parapet planters, intensive green roofs and a planted entrance marquee. The marquee draws reference from the loading dock awnings historically found in the neighborhood and the emergent vegetation that often took root there. The planting design includes wild trees and trailing plants that spill through a pattern of openings, bringing light and vegetation to the streetscape below.
The overall planting palette is designed to play off of the sleek lines of the architectural brickwork; native grasses, flowers and sedum sprout from atop parapet walls and emerge from planters built into the base of windows. The rich textures and colors of meadow grasses and perennials both soften the architecture and create a brilliant contrast of vibrant greens against soft whitish gray. Plants include perennials such as Rough goldenrod (Solidago missouriensis), Butterfly weed (Asclepsias tuberosa) and Blazing star (Liatris aspera), as well as grasses like Switch grass (Panicum ‘heavy metal’ virgatum) and Blue fescue (Festuca glauca). Resilient, drought tolerant native plants keep maintenance low, offer wildlife habitat and contribute to the neighborhood’s edgy identity.
The communal roof garden hosts a semi-intensive green roof with native meadow plants that colonize small amoeba-like mounds, along with Sumac trees and Scotch Broom. The roof is irrigated using water from a rainwater collection and irrigation system that is incorporated into the building’s bulkhead. The system will collect and redistribute 10,000 CF for irrigation annually.
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