Jean Nouvel: 100 11th St. New York

(Description from youtube poster)

The building is located at the intersection of 19th Street and the West Side Highway, along the Hudson River in Manhattan and facing another building by a star architect, Frank Gehrys headquarters for the IAC.

The 23-story tower features a curtain wall that was inspired equally by the famous stained glass window cycle at Saint-Chapelle in Paris and the optical effects of the sun on the Hudson River. Its a mosaic of nearly 1,700 different-sized panes of colorless glass, each set at a unique angle and torque. At the base of the building, Jean Nouvel placed an additional seven-story street wall of mullioned glass 15 feet from the buildings façade to reflect fleeting images of life beyond the building while creating a semi-enclosed atrium. The north and east façades of 100 11th Avenue are clad in black brick that references the masonry characteristic of West Chelseas industrial architecture.

In this video, we have a look at the buildings exterior by day (March 6, 2010), and its interior by night (March 4, 2010). For the VIP party / preview on March 4, 2010, Jean Nouvel created a collaborative installation with the French artist Jean-Charles Blais. The installation involved taking over an apartment and doing a temporary intervention in it.

Jean-Nouvel was born in Fumel, France, in 1945. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de lArchitecture. Over the course of his career, he received a number of prestigious awards, including the Pritzker Prize in 2008. Some of his most renowned works are the Arab World Institute, the Musée du quay Branly, and the Fondation Cartier in Paris; the Torre Agbar in Barcelona; and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Soféa in Madrid.