New York City Structures: 40 Bond

Neatly tucked in between the old brick buildings on the north side of the street east of Lafayette is 40 Bond.

40 Bond
40 Bond Street

Architects: Herzog & de Meuron
Year built: 2007

NEW YORK—Bumping down the cobblestones on Bond Street in NoHo, one will spot a stunner of a building. Neatly tucked in between the old brick buildings on the north side of the street east of Lafayette is 40 Bond, luxury condos and townhouses. At first sight, it is a curiosity, a coke-bottle-green, 11-story glass gem-box of a structure guarded by a lively and playful cast aluminum gate that stretches 140 feet across the front of the building.

The building was designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron (De Young Museum in San Francisco, Tate Modern Museum in London, and the “Bird’s Nest” stadium in Beijing) and developed by Ian Schrager (Studio 54, The Hudson Hotel, Gramercy Park Hotel renovation, and 50 Gramercy Park North).

The architects, who also designed the interiors, took their inspiration from the 19th century cast iron buildings of Lower Manhattan. Emulating the open floor plans and large windows to allow light from both north and south exposures; they then clad the entire structure with cast-glass forms made in Barcelona, Spain.

The grid of windows across the facade varies in intervals of narrow to wide to narrow and wide again, a rhythmic interplay with the New York City graffiti-inspired gate that rises and dips like ocean waves below. The swoops and swirls of abstracted graffiti patterns have been made three-dimensional, a kind of public sculpture that serves both as security and privacy fence for the five townhouses that span the building at the street level; though with the number of gawkers and photo-ops happening in front of the architectural tourist destination, it is hard to imagine having a cookout or a morning coffee behind the gate.

Jacques Herzog is quoted on the building’s website as saying, “When we decided to do gates it was essential that they integrate with the New York street; we wanted to create something solid, rough and chaotic … so we began to experiment with New York City street graffiti, which became the starting point of the design.”

Many have debated the success of this feature of the building. At night the gate is backlit, revealing the dimensionality of the sculptural forms and splashing light across the embossed metal plates that cover the lower portion of the building, which have also been decorated with the graffiti forms, creating dramatic interplay between the two that is less obvious in daylight.

The signature graffiti pattern is echoed throughout the design of the building, from the mirror polish stainless steel entry to the white Corian panels on the lobby walls. The gate rises in the center to become two towers that flank the tall and narrow single door entrance. The sum of these parts adds up to a look that is modern, posh, and very private. It is in fact oddly opaque for a structure that is essentially a glass house. Opaque as it may be, when the sunlight passes across the curved glass forms throughout the day, the building’s facade sparkles, reflects, and holds the light in a way that is novel and engaging.

Forty Bond was completed in 2007 and has 27 loft style condo apartments and five townhouses with private gardens. Real estate website trulia.com has listed two of the units this month, a two bedroom/two-and-a half bathrooms for $4,850,000 and a three bedroom/four bathrooms for $7,500,000.