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Project: 76 8th Avenue

Gene Kaufman’s design for the site is quite attractive, with a brick and bronze facade cast against enormous windows. The building will front directly against the sidewalk for the first five floors, enhancing the block’s street-wall, and yielding to a substantial setback up above, complete with a large terrace.

The project’s corners facing the intersection of 14th Street and 8th Avenue will also include another interesting feature. There will be two spots where the glass diverges from the brick and bronze, creating inset terraces within the exterior. These will be fronted by wavy glass, harking to the next-door One Jackson Square, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

The net result will be a handsome new office building that pays its due to the surrounding context, both historical and contemporary.

While this development is going to be a substantial improvement over the previous low-slung occupants, the building’s ten-story envelope is extremely limited relative to the lot’s actual potential. With the A, C, E, and L train’s 14th Street stop just one block away, and many more subway lines running in the blocks further to the east, the location is one of the most transit-accessible in all of Manhattan.

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NYY