277 5th Avenue Offers Expansive Views Without Cutting Corners
Just steps from Madison Square Park, 277 Fifth Avenue’s condominium residences offer a classic but modern design with incomparable views and an enviable location in Manhattan’s most sought-after and centrally located neighborhood.
277 5th Avenue, rendering via 277fifth.com/architecture
Known as NoMad, this Manhattan neighborhood is an energetic and dynamic location with a global point of view. This new high rise is slated to be a 53-story building that will stand 705 feet tall, with 141 condominiums units that divide the 209,087 square feet of space. Residences will average nearly 1,500 square feet apiece, and the project will also include 7,900 square feet of retail space on the first two floors. Located on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and East 30th Street, 277 Fifth Avenue is situated in the epicenter of fashion, technology, entertainment, and residential living. The area’s popularity stems from being close to trendy restaurants and shops, art and cultural venues, health and fitness destinations, and abundant green spaces.
Owner Victor Group is developing the site after picking up the assemblage for $99 million last year, and Lendlease is helping finance and co-develop the project, which will have a total cost of $400 million. Victor tapped Rafael Viñoly Architects as the lead architecture firm for the project. Rafael Viñoly has become increasingly popular in New York City for high-end residential projects, and while 432 Park Avenue is the architect’s most notable addition to the skyline, he has another major project in the works at 125 Greenwich Street. 277 Fifth Avenue will more closely resemble the latter project with a facade encapsulating a simple, square and slender envelope while mixing in texture with vertical bands of panels. 277 5th will have unobstructed views of the Flatiron Building, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, and both the East River and Hudson River.
Due to the intricate design of the exterior curtain wall, the project team knew that the new condominium building needed an erector that specializes in this type of design and construction, so they chose the nationally-acclaimed firm of W&W Glass to spearhead the engineering and installation of the integrated facade of glass and panels.
W&W Glass selected a SOTAWALL® Hybrid-Wall® to cover the majority of the facade that includes integrated column cladding consisting of 1/2″ thick Ferro extruded fiber reinforced concrete panels with a “liquide black” matte finish manufactured in Germany by Reider. The glass product used in the unitized curtain wall was supplied by Viracon in 1-1/8 inch argon-filled insulating glass units with VRE1-38 low-e that covered more than 200,000 square feet of facade. Every condo will have the added benefit of a tall zero siteline operable awning window, 2′ wide x 8’10” tall, for fresh air.
Residences start at the eleventh floor, giving each unit the benefit of a view. Some condominiums from the 40th floor up will have at least one open terrace, double-height space at one building corner. Four double-height loggias will be created, one on each corner, alternating around the building at every other floor. A loggia is a sheltered, open-air space that allows a terrace. W&W project manager Owen McCarthy says the loggias were also made from panels of insulated VRE1-38 units by Viracon that are 1-1/8 inch thick. The loggias were a very custom element to the design that would not easily be accomplished with the main unitized curtain wall due to span. To this end, they were built as stick curtain walls using a Erie Architectural Product’s EF 30 SW series Enviro Facades™. Each loggia will be fit with German-engineered Schuco ASS 50 lift and slide doors for superior air and water performance. Of the three penthouses created, the highest two will occupy a full floor and encompass the whole width of the building in lieu of just a corner. These two loggia terraces will have the added benefit of an outdoor spa.
277 5th Avenue Loggias, rendering via Curbed NY
The first two floors of the building are dedicated to retail space. At the podium, an EF 30 UW Enviro Façade unitized wall covers 7,000 square feet with Sedak 13/16 tempered laminated glass glazed in for the retail portion. Above that will be a two-floor amenity suite that includes an entertainment lounge, separate bar and catering pantry, private dining room, children’s club, gaming lounge, fitness center, and a landscaped terrace along Fifth Avenue.
There will be a full-time doorman, porter services, live-in resident manager, private storage, pet priority program, dry cleaning, and vehicle concierge. Floor-heights increase as the building rises, adding some architectural interest from the exterior and always desirable higher ceiling space for owners. Condominiums will range from two to four units per floor, besides full-floor units on the eighth, 49th, and 50th stories. Amenities (including a lounge, fitness center, library, and spa) will be located above the retail space. Once completed and open later next year, this certainly will be one of the most attractive new condos in the area.
For more information on all the projects completed and underway by the W&W Glass professionals, go to check out our portfolio section. More photos and projects are constantly being added.
W&W Glass LLC is a family owned business with a 70-year history in the metal and glass industry, one of the largest metal and glass companies in the New York metropolitan area and the largest supplier of structural glass systems in the country. We have over two decades of experience in the design and installation of various building enclosure systems, including stick-built curtain walls, pre-glazed unitized curtain walls, Pilkington Planar™ structural glass facades, and custom metal and glass enclosure systems. We install all of our work with our own dedicated union labor force. W&W is consistently the largest employer of glaziers in the NY metropolitan area.
