Location: New York, New York
Developer: AGA 15^th Street LLC
Designer: FXFOWLE
Site Size: 0.18 acres

35XV is a mixed-use and mixed design building at the eastern edge of Chelsea in New York City. A granite-clad base houses an expansion of an historic high school, and continues the scale and materiality of the street while a sculpted, angled glass high-rise expansion extends above. The development includes 35,000 sq. ft. of educational space, 2,340 sq. ft. of rooftop open space, and 55 residential condominiums. Residences average $2,600 per sq. ft. and the estimated total cost of the project is $140 million.

A granite-clad base houses six floors of classrooms and a half-court gym for the high school. Floors eight and above can be identified by the “fish-scaled” glass structure and contain a mix of one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom luxury units. A residential amenity space which includes a gym, lounge, children’s play room, shared wine “cave”, and a communal terrace, is located on the seventh floor. This mixture of functions within the building is one of the reasons why 35XV is unique.

An inventive use of air rights was demonstrated by the developer through the acquisition of the high school’s air rights in exchange for building a new school at the base of the new residential condominium. This financial structure with Xavier High School and the location and design of 35XV, assisted in the ultimate success of the project.

The complexity of constraints requiring inventive design features and logistical considerations add to the uniqueness of the development as well. A stone-clad cubic base continuing the scale of and materiality of the “street wall” and a glass cladded sloped tower give the building two distinct identities. Post tensioned slab, 90ft. flying exterior steel columns, steel and concrete superstructures, a cantilevered tower to extend residential floor area, and a sloped façade with a complex shading system were some of the design specifications incorporated into the design. For its outstanding architecture and engineering solutions, 35XV was named the winner of the 2015 Gold Award for Excellence by the Society of American Registered Architects New York Council and the winner of the Platinum Award for Optimized Design for Mixed-Use by the American Council of Engineering Companies, 2016 Engineering Excellence Awards.