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The existing 1633 Broadway building represents a microcosm of the mid-century, corner block, office tower that are mostly vacant in post-pandemic Manhattan, making it an ideal case study for the adaptive reuse as residential and shared amenity functions. The existing 25-foot-wide bays would be unusual for a ground up new residential building. These variables provide a unique opportunity for duplex housing. Borrowing an attitude from Manhattan’s original suburb, Brooklyn, the classic brownstone typology is adapted and hung onto the steel frame, like a rock climber’s portaledge cliff dwelling, to create a new vertical neighborhood.
Portaledge proposes an adaptive re-use residential model that provides a more flexible housing stock for a modern live/work lifestyle merged with the growth potential and community needs for the integration of families and provides ample exterior green space. It is envisioned as an opportunity to leverage the bones of an existing structure, or similar towers built as deep floorplate office buildings, to create an entire tower of 2-to-4-bedroom town-homes as a strategic development opportunity mutually beneficial to seeding long term integrated communities while bolstering New York’s housing stock geared towards multi-generational and live/work dwelling.