Mercedes House, a mixed-use development on the western edge of midtown Manhattan designed by Andrea Steele Architecture (formerly TEN Arquitectos, NY), occupies more than half a city block and comprises a total of 1.3 million square feet of commercial and residential space.
The design, which slopes up and away from De Witt Clinton Park at a starting height of 86 feet along Eleventh Avenue and reaches 328 feet at its peak, is rooted in the unique conditions of the site. As a moment of transition, the building reconciles two distinctly different urban scales: the flat, horizontal plane of the Hudson River waterfront park to the west and the dense, predominantly vertical Manhattan grid to the east. The project shifts diagonally across the site in a unique orientation to the Manhattan grid, reducing the building’s mass adjacent to the neighboring buildings. Each floor steps up from the one below, allowing for unobstructed views to the park and the river and providing private roof terraces with green roofs on every floor. The curving central structure introduces two courtyards—a sun-bathed pool and garden to the south and a shaded activities court to the north. Semi-public exterior spaces are activated during both the day and night by amenities, including a gallery, a market, and a health club, at its perimeter.
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