With 33 floors, 65 luxury apartments, 4 penthouses and a striking skyhouse, the new 172 Madison Avenue residential skyscraper was designed to meet the most different contemporary needs. Just think about the high ceilings, 3 up to 7 meters high, which were designed to appreciate the skyline; the latest generation home automation systems; a sauna; a swimming pool; a gym; finally, the fully glazed walls always make you feel at the center of the world.
Located in the hub of New York City, in one of the most prestigious streets of the city, 172 Madison Avenue is a new symbol of luxury. Surrounded by high fashion ateliers and refined boutiques, it is characterized by its intense verticality, stressed by the double stone curtain walls on each side which, starting from the base, runs along the entire length acting as a typifying element. The monolithic look given by the height (the tower reaches 141 meters) is lessened by the blocks, put backwards gradually proceeding towards the sky, which mitigate the design lines and accentuate the general lightness.
The square base (21x21 meters), on which the main body of the building stands, was designed to accommodate not only the lobby, but also the first, big, luxury residence, equipped with a large terrace with private pool. Moreover, the building houses 65 apartments (all structured with a panoramic corner), 4 penthouses and, finally, a magnificent skyhouse. The skyhouse was built on three levels and has not only a private elevator, but also an outdoor swimming pool and a glass whirlpool tub overlooking the striking Manhattan skyline.
A customized facade
The impressive unitized facade of 172 Madison Avenue – designed by Metal-Ser, in Bergamo, Schüco’s Partner, with the advice of Schüco Italia Technical Office – was built with a customized version of the construction system Schüco USC 65, combined with the aluminum openings Schüco AWS 102, customized too. Besides the strict American performance and safety requirements, the solutions also had to meet specific aesthetic demands: the full-height stone claddings decorating the four sides of the building, for example, were anchored not only to the load-bearing structure of the tower, but also to the façade profiles, for which a specific interface was created.
Tailored to ensure the technical and aesthetic excellence, the curtain walls of the shell, consisting of a frame made of aluminum profiles with a base of 1520 mm and a height of 3500 mm, were successfully tested in Pennsylvania, at the National Certified Testing Laboratories (NCTL). For this purpose, a mock-up of 8.5 x 7.2 meters were realized to reproduce a corner portion of the building on two floors (with a short side of 3.2 m, a long side of 5.3 m and a height of 7.2 m). The results exceeded the performances required by specifications, with air and water tightness of 300 Pa and 700 Pa respectively, wind load resistance at a pressure of 1.68 kN/m2 and 2.51 kN/m2 as safety load. The developed façade system offers an average thermal insulation of 1.85 W/m2K.
Finally, the 621 outwards openings Schüco AWS 102 of the residential tower were customized in the design, but especially in terms of safety, as they integrate in the standard equipment the opening limiters specifically designed against the fall into the void, in compliance with current specific regulations.
*credits
- Location: Manhattan, New York
- Architecture design: Studio KFA, arch. Karl Fischer
- Interior Designer: Shamir Shah Design
- Shell systems: Schüco Italia
- Facades Model: Schüco USC 65, customized version
- Openings Model: Schüco AWS 102, customized version
- Design, systems implementation: Metal-Ser (BG)
