New York, NY, January 13, 2012 –The American Institute of Architects announced that The Standard, New York has received a 2012 Institute Honor Award, the profession’s highest recognition of works that exemplify excellence in architecture. Todd Schliemann of Ennead Architects is the designer of the Standard, New York, an Andre Balazs property. Schliemann led the design team with partner Kevin McClurkan. Selected from over 700 submissions, 27 recipients located throughout the world will be honored at the AIA 2012 National Convention and Design Exposition in Washington, D.C.

As members of the AIA jury note, “the building blends seamlessly with the fabric of the surrounding neighborhood. The goal for transparency and openness successfully drives design and detailing decisions. There is clarity in the choice and articulation of materials and a sense of restraint, though the end result is one of high visual impact.”

The 337-room, 204,500-square-foot Standard, New York is located in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, an architecturally rich, mercantile district constituted principally of two-story 19th- and 20th-century manufacturing, residential and commercial buildings. The building is elevated above the street and straddles the High Line, an abandoned section of a 75-year-old elevated railroad line, which passes over the buildings of the district and is currently being developed as a new linear, public park.

The eighteen-story, concrete and glass structure defines the New York City identity of the Standard brand and engages its urban context through contrast. Sculptural piers, whose forms clearly separate the building from the orthogonal street grid, raise the building fifty-seven feet off the street, allowing the horizontally-scaled industrial landscape to pass beneath it and natural light to penetrate to the street. The two slabs are “hinged” – angled to further emphasize the building’s distinction from the city’s grid and its levitation above the neighborhood. The low-scale context affords the building unusual visibility from all directions, and its interaction with the High Line creates a stepped transition from the street, shaping distinct public spaces that afford visitors unique views of the City from all directions.

The juxtaposition of the building’s two materials – poured-in-place, board-formed concrete and glass – reflects New York City’s complex character: the gritty quality of the concrete contrasts with the refinement of the glass. The concrete grid provides a delicate frame for the exceedingly transparent water-white glass, the two materials unified in the continuous plane of the curtain wall. This exterior wall breaks with the traditional architecture of hotels, replacing opacity with transparency, privacy with openness and defining a new paradigm.


L’edificio, situato nella lontana zona occidentale di Manhattan, a cavallo di un viale pedonale lungo il fiume Hudson, è sospeso su giganteschi piloni in cemento e contrappone l’asprezza e la potenza della fredda e spoglia struttura esterna in cemento armato a sorprendenti dettagli in mattoni, legno, metallo e vetro.

André Balazs, simile ad un produttore di Hollywood, ha ingaggiato un’intera squadra di designers per la progettazione dello Standard di New York: oltre al veterano Shawn Hausman, progettista delle altre sedi dello Standard a Miami, Los Angeles e Hollywood, vi sono Todd Schliemann dello studio Polshek Partnership Architects e la firma newyorkese Roman and Williams, il cui utilizzo di materiali non convenzionali è evidente in tutti i dettagli.

Il brutalismo della facciata si contrappone all’inaspettato e accattivante dinamismo interno che riflette il desiderio di Roman and Williams di “creare un senso dell’architettura” in tutti i propri interni.

Sebbene siano compatte, le camere sono disponibili in otto diverse forme e dimensioni, tutte “confezionate” con colori, tessuti e luci. I bagni, ad esempio, sono rivestiti in piastrelle fatte a mano di colore arancione, nero e crema. Le tradizionali scrivanie sono sostituite da accoglienti divani. Le testate dei letti in legno arrivano fino al soffitto e le pareti vetrate di divisione dello spazio creano degli effetti di illuminazione molto scenografici.