Article from The Architect’s Newspaper.
Amenitize This
The drive for postpandemic perks to attract buyers and renters challenges architects to create buzzy shared spaces. How’s it going?
Late last year, I toured, Bergen, a 105-unit condominium building in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood. The project, developed by Avdoo & Partners, includes architecture by Taller Frida Escobedo, master planning and landscape by DXA Studio and Patrick Cullina, and interior design by Workstead. The units, set behind brick screens on the sawtooth street frontage, will be luxurious. They’re also pricey: As of this writing, the cheapest unit is a 472-square-foot studio listed for $750,000.
Still, ownership comes with benefits. After my tour, I kept thinking about the long list of spaces that will be available across the complex, from a lower-level suite to a central, glassy great room to the rooftop terraces. Residents will have access to a lounge, spa, fitness and yoga studios, a screening room, podcast and video conference spaces, a chef’s kitchen, and more, reflecting a desire for developers to attract buyers or renters with every sort of amenity imaginable, checking boxes such as wellness, creative, fitness, and entertainment needs—all trendy aspects for real estate marketing in the postpandemic era.
It would be too easy to parody this level of service for soon-to-be-pampered Brooklynites. Instead, Bergen’s offerings demonstrate the importance of these extended sets of activities beyond the footprint of one’s own unit for contemporary buyers. Amenities are increasingly how developments attract interest, especially in New York, where living quarters are small and market pressures control the size of new units.
These spaces—and their potential to become something like the highly sought-after third spaces—support activities that were once distributed across the neighborhood. Rather than venturing too far from home, we can log in from a coworking lounge, exercise in the gym, swim in the pool, socialize, and drop off the kids for child care without leaving the premises.
Americans feel lonelier than ever, so these gathering spaces have a purpose: Shared rooms can be beneficial for young people who just moved to a new city or families with children or older folks looking to stay social. The pandemic accelerated the desire for these options, as the strictures of office life were relaxed for many professionals and demand for hospitality offerings surged across many project sectors. In response, a certain profile of adept architects has emerged with the expertise to work across the domains of architecture, interior architecture, interior design, furniture design, wayfinding, graphic design, and event programming to design these spaces.
AN spoke with architects who design these spaces and developers who fund them to understand how and why these spaces are changing—and what those changes mean for architects who deliver new multifamily residential projects.
Read the full article here.
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