This Blue Bottle café, the second on the East Coast designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, occupies a prominent street-level corner in Four World Trade Center. The location is a significant confluence of development, commerce, and tourism, and, with the adjacent 9/11 Memorial Plaza, one of the most iconic destinations in New York City.
With one façade opening to Memorial Plaza, the café activates the newly created pedestrian retail walk, dubbed Cortlandt Way, while taking advantage of expansive views across Greenwich Street to the Shady Oak Grove. At the center of this bustling New York City hub, the 1,000-square-foot café provides a moment of respite and calm under dramatic 26-foot-tall ceilings where a carefully arranged series of millwork ribs organize the soaring interior space into layers of finish and acoustic treatment, and provide a modulated system for merchandise display and storage.
The café’s modest size required utmost care in determining efficiency of flows and activity for the anticipated volume of daily customers. While service circulates along the interior, an eddy of perimeter seating provides flexible arrangements for individuals or small groups, inviting customers to take refuge from the buzz of the city at an ideal point of prospect and observation.