Manhattan High-Rise Captures the Beauty and Details of a Metal Facade

Photo courtesy of CetraRuddy Architecture/Esto-David Sundberg

Bronze-colored MCM panels create and elegant aesthetic for the 45-story Rose Hill residential high-rise in Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood.

Hearkening back to the architectural beauty, patterning and facade detailing of the early 20th century is the Art Deco-inspired 45-story Rose Hill in Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood. Developed by the Rockefeller Group, the high-rise houses 123 condominiums with approximately 230,000 square feet of interior space. Common areas include a lobby, underground pool, squash court, gym, 37th-floor meeting room, and a spacious terrace.

“The building features an expressive glass and metallic bronze facade, accented with chevron patterns, intricate detailing, and expansive windows, referencing a classically Gotham aesthetic interpreted in a modern vocabulary,” said John Cetra, FAIA, founding principal, CetraRuddy Architecture, New York, in a Metal Architecture article. A rectilinear series of bronze-colored metal panels and glazing clad the facade with a number of setbacks on the ascent, per City regulations. Distinguishing the skyscraper from a typical Manhattan building are the bottom-lit chevron reliefs and beautiful detailing continuing all the way up the facade.

Offering some historical context, Lee Calisti, AIA, lee CALSTI architecture+design, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, explained, “One problem with 20th-century tall towers is they don’t have any detail beyond ground level as our predecessors did. The fact that they [the architect] has this detail all the way up the building really says something.” The design is also unique in that the first scaling back of the facade can be easily viewed at street level, whereas high-rise designs typically require the pedestrian to look up to view such detailing. Consequently, Centra describes his firm’s design as a “statement to the street.”

The hybrid wall system is a combination of unitized curtainwall and custom chevron metal panel infills coated in chocolate bronze. The two-coat application adds mica pearlescent flake to the color layer to create the bronze, metalescent look. Cetra added that the applications of metal panels enabled the project to reduce the facade’s overall weight, as compared to masonry or other materials.

During the planning phase, terracotta, and other contemporary materials were considered, but cost and load considerations led to the selection of metal paneling. To compensate for the typical flat look lent by metal, the raised chevrons add depth to the facade as does the corrugated metal banding every four stories which create a grid with the panel columns. The aluminum in the vertical pilasters appear as a warm, sueded bronze finish, which blends into the neighborhood context and offers a dynamic appearance based upon the sun’s position throughout the day and year. The aluminum was also easy to work with in the creation of the details through a combination of extruded shapes and corrugated panels. “It’s just so gorgeous. Look at the details. It feels modern. It has simplicity of metal panel selection and that simple texture; very elegant and admirable,” stated Mark Roddy, FAIA, principal, Mark Roddy Architects, Sacramento, California.