Award Winning Hudson Yards Lobby Features Mixture of Tactile Materials

The lobby at 55 Hudson Yards in New York is an award-winning LEED Gold project. Winner of the American Architecture Award (Chicago Athenaeum 2020) and the Merit Award for Architecture (AIA NY Design Awards 2020), the project utilizes a mixture of tactile materials. Warm wooden tones juxtapose the greys throughout the interior.

Located in Manhattan, neighboring West Chelsea and the Meatpacking District, the project combines contemporary and industrial influences. The architects at KPF describe, “Unlike many new office towers clad in glass, 55 Hudson Yards comes to life through its modulated scale, crafted façade, and natural materials that speak to its formerly industrial context and the spirit of fabrication.”


© Photography Connie Zhou

The granite walls are clad in split-face quarry stone whose slabs vary in texture and appearance. Each material, from the granite slabs to saw tooth glass walls was purposeful. The architects further explain, “This approach to materiality is institutionalized at KPF. Each project, from large office towers to low-scale residential buildings, incorporates a level of craft and detail driven to elevate the tenant experience.”

To contrast the stone, a warm wooden accent ceiling was produced. The ceiling features a custom “Walnut” woodgrain panel. The manufacturers at Pure + Freeform describes, “Because the lobby is illuminated by natural light, the panels also needed to be extremely flat, so a honeycomb backer was employed. The result is a textured, floating ceiling that issues warmth and connects with its urban and natural surroundings.”


© Photography Connie Zhou

The Pure + Freeform panels are enriched with Lumiflon FEVE resin technology. Coatings with Lumiflon FEVE resin technology offer benefits that many other coatings do not. The fluoropolymer provides unmatched weatherability, which helps prevent coating degradation. FEVE-based coatings also help reduce lifecycle costs, as their hyper-durability allows a coating to resist degradation in the face of UV radiation, salt, and water for decades.

Photography ©Connie Zhou