Winka Dubbeldam, Take 2

Dutch-born architect Winka Dubbeldam is at work on a follow-up to her innovative 497 Greenwich Street design (top right) with a new project for an empty lot on Vestry Street in TriBeCa.  The design for 31-33 Vestry was recently unveiled at a hearing held by the Landmarks Preservation Commission where Ms. Dubbeldam was asked to make a number of changes.  The building's curtain wall as proposed (bottom right) would be inlaid with bands of light-emitting stone that will glow at night.  The luminous facade would be extremely flat and, according to Downtown Express' Ronda Kaysen, members of the commission expressed concern that it would make for too harsh a contrast with the neighboring buildings.  To our eyes the plan is such a clean break from the past that to ask Ms. Dubbeldam to apply cheap echoes of its surroundings would be rather silly.  We hope the revised design will maintain the spirit in which it was first conceived, and we hope the commission will ultimately find the merit in a challenging design.  Follow the link to Downtown Express for a larger view.

• Archi-Tectonics (Winka Dubbeldam)
• Landmarks dim view of glowing design (Downtown Express)