The Prism Tower/400 Park Avenue South

The Prism Tower is a glass phoenix rising from traditional square apartment buildings. It’s this geometry that breaks the phalanx of typical apartment buildings along the avenue. While it might appear that is was a relatively simple glass wall design, several facades of the building have an inclination angle between 10 degrees up to 60 degrees. Rather than stepping back the mass to comply with zoning laws intended to bring light down to the street, the design simply inclined the leading edges of the prisms to open a path of travel for sunlight. Instead of using terraced setbacks to respond to code, the design uses fragmented and angled façades.

Location 400 Park Avenue South New York, New York
Building Type
Architect Atelier Christian de Portzamparc / Handel Architects
Owner/Developer Equity Residential / Toll Brothers City Living
Construction Manager/General Contractor Lend Lease
Installer W&W Glass, LLC
Materials
The 400 Park Avenue South project features a completely custom unitized curtainwall system from Sota Glazing. There were many in and out angles, degrees of splay, and glass shapes that had to be accommodated on all sides of the facade using custom extrusion dies and silicone gaskets to help to keep the system fully air and water-tight while allowing the signature crystalline shape from the architect’s vision to be achieved.
Project Highlights
The Prism Tower is a glass phoenix rising from traditional square apartment buildings. It’s this geometry that breaks the phalanx of typical apartment buildings along the avenue. While it might appear that is was a relatively simple glass wall design, several facades of the building have an inclination angle between 10 degrees up to 60 degrees. That was just from the outside. Inside, this project features a completely custom unitized curtain wall system from Sotawall®. Rather than stepping back the mass to comply with zoning laws intended to bring light down to the street, the design simply inclined the leading edges of the prisms to open a path of travel for sunlight. Instead of using terraced setbacks to respond to code, the design uses fragmented and angled façades. There were many in and out angles, degrees of splay, and glass shapes that had to be accommodated on all sides of the facade using custom extrusion dies and silicone gaskets. These help to keep the system fully air and water-tight while allowing the signature crystalline shape from de Portzamparc’s vision to be achieved.