With New York’s Waterline Square, three architects are better than one

Three leading starchitecture firms – Rafael Viñoly Architects, Richard Meier & Partners Architects and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates – have joined forces to collaborate on Waterline Square, a new residential development occupying five acres of land on one of the Upper West Side's last remaining waterfront development sites along the Hudson River.
Brought together by national real estate organisation GID – due to its experience designing New York City buildings – the architects have each designed a unique tower block for the development.
While unique, the three buildings feature the same architectural lexicon of glass and specialised metal panels in rectangular shapes with stone bases, allowing their forms to feel like members of the same family. The stepped outdoor spaces form cascading ridges across the facades and each building has an irregularly faceted crown, with heights varying from approximately 370 ft to 450 ft.
Open green space and a park have been landscaped into the development design, linking it to the New York City grid and the adjacent Hudson River Greenway
At ground level, outdoor green space has been designed to flow through the masterplan, linking the buildings together and connecting them to the city and Hudson waterfront beyond. A park with a playground, fountains and waterfalls has been placed at the centre of the development to conjure the same sense of community found at the neighbouring iconic spaces of Hudson River Park, Central Park and Riverside Park.
Expected to complete in the second half of 2018, Waterline Square is part of the larger Riverside Masterplan, which began over two decades ago, designed to transform 77 acres of Manhattan’s Hudson River waterfront into a residential neighbourhood.
Each building is being constructed simultaneously, with the development expected to complete in 2018
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Waterline Square website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
A Karuizawa house is a soothing, work-from-home retreat in Japan
Takeshi Hirobe Architects play with scale and space, creating a tranquil residence in which to live and work
-
Vincent Van Duysen launches ‘most modern’ Zara Home collection
The fourth instalment of architect Vincent Van Duysen’s collaboration with Zara Home introduces a modernist sensibility, with new materials and refined, architectural forms
-
For its New York City debut, Formafantasma goes back to basics
On view at Friedman Benda this summer, the show is the result of the Milan-based studio's ongoing fascination with history, technology and domesticity
-
The world of Bart Prince, where architecture is born from the inside out
For the Albuquerque architect Bart Prince, function trumps form, and all building starts from the inside out; we revisit a profile from the Wallpaper* archive, first published in April 2009
-
Is embracing nature the key to a more fire-resilient Los Angeles? These landscape architects think so
For some, an executive order issued by California governor Gavin Newsom does little to address the complexities of living within an urban-wildland interface
-
Hop on this Fire Island Pines tour, marking Pride Month and the start of the summer
A Fire Island Pines tour through the work of architecture studio BOND is hosted by The American Institute of Architects New York in celebration of Pride Month; join the fun
-
A Laurel Canyon house shows off its midcentury architecture bones
We step inside a refreshed modernist Laurel Canyon house, the family home of Annie Ritz and Daniel Rabin of And And And Studio
-
A refreshed Rockefeller Wing reopens with a bang at The Met in New York
The Met's Michael C Rockefeller Wing gets a refresh by Kulapat Yantrasast's WHY Architecture, bringing light, air and impact to the galleries devoted to arts from Africa, Oceania and the Ancient Americas
-
A Fire Island house for two sisters reimagines the beach home typology
Coughlin Scheel Architects’ Fire Island house is an exploration of an extended family retreat for the 21st century
-
PlayLab opens its Los Angeles base, blending workspace, library and shop in a new interior
Creative studio PlayLab opens its Los Angeles workspace and reveals plans to also open its archive to the public for the first time, revealing a dedicated space full of pop treasures
-
Los Angeles businesses regroup after the 2025 fires
In the third instalment of our Rebuilding LA series, we zoom in on Los Angeles businesses and the architecture and social fabric around them within the impacted Los Angeles neighbourhoods