Project 395
An urban infill mixed-use project by Handel Architects demonstrating the juxtaposition of a textured masonry volume with a slender glazed tower, useful for studying contextual height transitions and facade articulation.
- What we like about this project
- The slender glass tower appears to emerge directly behind the masonry block, creating a layered depth effect from the street view.
Materials
- grey-brick
- glass
- metal
- timber
Visual identifiers
- grey-brick-facade
- punched-windows
- glass-tower
- vertical-fins
Style tags
- contemporary
- contextual
- rationalist
Visual tags
- urban-infill
- mixed-use
- facade-articulation
- contemporary-vernacular
- masonry
- Geometry
- An asymmetrical multi-volume composition featuring a stepped masonry block with a recessed vertical tower rising behind it, contrasted against an older dark grey contextual building on the left.
- Facade system
- Load-bearing or panelized grey brick cladding with punched recessed windows alongside a unitized glass curtain wall tower.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame or concrete superstructure with masonry rainscreen or backup walls.
- Spatial scale
- Multi-story urban residential or mixed-use development interacting directly with the pedestrian sidewalk.
- Lighting
- Bright direct daylight casting crisp vertical shadows across the recessed window bays and deep brick piers.
- Atmosphere
- Structured, crisp, and firmly anchored in an established urban fabric.
- Environmental context
- Urban infill street edge with neighboring mid-rise buildings and mature trees visible behind a slatted ground-floor screen.
- Spatial experience
- The streetscape establishes a clear urban frontage with a solid masonry base and vertically proportioned punched windows that step up and back into a lighter curtain wall tower.
- Composition rhythm
- Rigid vertical grid of punched openings offset by a finer vertical mullion rhythm on the tower and ground-level timber-like screen.
- Style reading
- Contemporary urban contextualism
- Program
- Residential or mixed-use apartment building
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- grey-brick, glass, metal, timber
- Visual identifiers
- grey-brick-facade, punched-windows, glass-tower, vertical-fins
- Style tags
- contemporary, contextual, rationalist
- Visual tags
- urban-infill, mixed-use, facade-articulation, contemporary-vernacular, masonry
- Geometry
- An asymmetrical multi-volume composition featuring a stepped masonry block with a recessed vertical tower rising behind it, contrasted against an older dark grey contextual building on the left.
- Facade system
- Load-bearing or panelized grey brick cladding with punched recessed windows alongside a unitized glass curtain wall tower.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame or concrete superstructure with masonry rainscreen or backup walls.
- Spatial scale
- Multi-story urban residential or mixed-use development interacting directly with the pedestrian sidewalk.
- Lighting
- Bright direct daylight casting crisp vertical shadows across the recessed window bays and deep brick piers.
- Atmosphere
- Structured, crisp, and firmly anchored in an established urban fabric.
- Environmental context
- Urban infill street edge with neighboring mid-rise buildings and mature trees visible behind a slatted ground-floor screen.
- Spatial experience
- The streetscape establishes a clear urban frontage with a solid masonry base and vertically proportioned punched windows that step up and back into a lighter curtain wall tower.
- Composition rhythm
- Rigid vertical grid of punched openings offset by a finer vertical mullion rhythm on the tower and ground-level timber-like screen.
- Style reading
- Contemporary urban contextualism
- Program
- Residential or mixed-use apartment building
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture