715 Soundview Avenue is a project for Odyssey House, funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health, consisting of 56 single room occupancy residences in a 5-story building with program spaces in the cellar. It is located on an unusual triangular site in the Bronx, which challenged UAI to create a dynamic building, clad in a glass-fiber reinforced rain-screen system. A transparent glass façade at the corner entry and lounges on each of the elevator lobbies above contrasts with the paneled face of the residential portions of the building. A third material, painted metal panels, are a symbolic gesture to the mechanical distribution system behind, and serve as an additional colored element in the ensemble of façade materials.
The punched windows at the apartments are designed to take advantage of the shape of the building and direction of the wind and maximize natural ventilation in the apartments. The common spaces including dining, exercise, laundry, and lounge spaces in the cellar open onto a rear yard which terrace up through many levels of urban vegetable gardens until reaching the lobby entry level. Many active and passive energy conservation features are incorporated in the design of the building. This is Odyssey’s first building with LEED certification.
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