Creating a free-moving façade: Eight Spruce Street, New York, USA
Back in 2011, our Permasteelisa North America team completed work on the remarkable façade of Eight Spruce Street – the 265m high, Frank Gehry-designed residential tower that dominates the New York cityscape.
The tower was designed from the inside out, to make the most of residents’ views over the city. The inspiration for the remarkable façade design was the traditional New York bay window – in Gehry’s words:
“What I wanted to do was resurrect the bay window… When you walk to a window that’s flat, you’re there and you can see on either side of the window; but if there’s a bay window you walk two more feet forward and you’re in an outer space, so that the window surrounds you. And that experience on the 40th, 50th, 60th floor is unique.”
Gehry developed the concept of a free-moving façade to accommodate the bay windows. Rather than aligning the windows vertically, he moved them slightly from floor to floor, adjusting their size from unit to unit. The final effect is of fabric draping over the building.
In the first of a new ‘Façade in Focus’ case study series, we explore the story of our part in the building’s creation, from initial concept and extensive modelling through to fabrication and installation. What does it take to create a free-moving façade like Eight Spruce Street?