Urban Dwelling: How Lessons from the Past Shape the Future
“The city is like a great house, and the house in its turn a small city.”
— Leon Battista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, 1452
The Ideal City, Walters Art Museum Baltimore
Front doors are city gates. Living rooms are town squares. Roof terraces are public parks.
Home design can be simple or complex, but all good dwellings incorporate the qualities of the urban life of great cities. Spatial qualities and textures facilitate the everyday interactions of people within their homes, as well as in communal residential spaces. Dwellings that share the cultural bounty of the city inspire and engage with their inhabitants for a more enriching living experience.
Which elements of the city can you recognize in your home?
Lever House, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1952. Image Credit: SOM
A Building’s Posture Within the Urban Fabric
One Clinton Park
The tower on a podium design at One Clinton Park follows the Internationalist innovation at Lever House, providing a transition from the scale and pace of public life to the interior private realm.
The Gates of Paradise at the Baptistry of San Giovanni, Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1425-52. Image Credit: Nelson Atkins Museum of Art
A Grand Entrance
350 West Broadway
The dark chiseled granite entrance at 350 West Broadway recalls Ghiberti’s iconic dark bronze doors at The Baptistry in Florence, distinguishing the portal to a new realm.
Paley Park, Zion Breen Richardson Associates, 1967. Image Credit: Total Landscape Care
A Secluded Garden
777 Sixth Avenue
777 Sixth Avenue’s interior courtyard shares similar design features, scale, and proportions to New York’s most successful pocket park, Paley Park, offering visitors a space of tranquility.
Grand Louvre Modernization, I.M. Pei, 1983-93. Image Credit: zayda-rosales
A Grand Stair
Linc LIC
The winding stair at the lobby of Linc LIC references a classic archetype symbolizing enlightenment to bridge public and private realms, similar to the entrance at the Louvre.
The Getty Center, Meier Partners, 1984-97. Image Credit: 20th Century Architecture
A Feature Wall
Lyra NYC
The double-height communal space at Lyra NYC uses a ceremonial play of light, water, and stone to create a serene space to stay, mirroring unexpected moments at the Getty Center where travertine meets light and water.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Yoshio Taniguchi, 2004. Image Credit: MoMA
An Urban Courtyard
310 East 53rd Street
The tenants’ terrace at 310 E 53rd St offers a singular view from within the urban fabric that is semi-private yet fully immersed, similar to the courtyard at MoMA.
Ozenfant House, Le Corbusier, 1922. Image Credit: 20th Century Architecture
A Daylit Dwelling
310 East 53rd Street
The townhouses at 310 E 53rd St take inspiration from Le Corbusier’s Ozenfant House, letting daylight stream into the volume through geometrically proportional windows.
Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University. James Gibbs, 1737-49. Image Credit: Lonely Planet
A Monumental Shape
Upper East Side Residence
A centralized circular form at this private residence anchors and organizes all of the rooms adjacent to it, similar to the urban composition around the Radcliffe Camera at Oxford.
Roman Baths. Bath, Somerset, England, 1st Century A.D. Image Credit: Amazing Places
A Public Bath
One Wall Street
The Roman Baths were the center of ancient public life. The pool at One Wall Street draws upon this iconic architecture to provide a true experience of rejuvenation.
Piazzale Michelangelo, Florence, Italy. Giuseppe Poggi, 1869. Image Credit: Trip Savvy
A Rooftop View
One Wall Street
It is an intrinsic human desire to gaze upon our world from the highest vantage point. Great urban spaces like Piazzale Michelangelo and the roof deck at One Wall Street provide an ideal space to do just that.
