611 West 56th Street, Álvaro Siza

Simple. Better.

Alvaro Siza’s architecture has been fittingly described as ‘poetic modernism’, with the Pritzker Prize jury noting that ‘his shapes, molded by light, have a deceptive simplicity about them; they are honest’. With profound clarity and a forward-thinking vision, 611 West 56th Street proves quality, not quantity, is indeed more. Our brand and marketing materials for Alvaro Siza’s first ever USA project very much reflect this ethos, which are all encapsulated in the sales gallery. Designed for developers Sumaida + Khurana and LENY, with interior designers Gabellini Sheppard, the experience offers a calm respite from the buzzing city outside.

Scope: Brand Strategy, Identity, Guidelines, Advertising, Literature, Stationery, Renders, Animations, Film, Photography, Art Direction, Copywriting, Sales Gallery Design, Website, Marketing Software, Production.

611w56st.com

“Our collaborator Álvaro Siza has designed a building that we hope will be viewed as an elegant and timeless stone monolith, reflective of the quality and purity of design that defines his work.”

Amit Khurana, Founding partner of Sumaida + Khurana

“Since behind my building I had a big black black tower, I thought that to reinforce this vertical line, I should make it white.”

Alvaro Siza

Refined and Understated

Developers Sumaida + Khurana think that many New York development tends to be about excessive gestures, extravagance over elegance, and developers have a tendency to focus on the transitory versus the timeless. The goal with their projects is very much the opposite of that. “We care about detailing, and about creating something refined and understated — architecture that stands the test of time”, Amit Khurana. This refined and understated sensibility permeates through all of the materials and experiences designed for 611 West 56 Street. The subtle palette of warm grey and white was referential of the Perla Bianca limestone façade with granite base. The materials also express the structure’s slender sculptural profile which has been envisioned as a striking white volume, a monolithic form, a sculptural masterpiece by one of the greatest living architects of our time.

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“Siza brings with him a singular level of care and craft rare to the profession, especially today — and even more on the New York stage, which is increasingly dominated by glass-and-steel skyscrapers.”

Spencer Bailey. Editor at Large, Phaidon

“The concept of simplicity, the notion of utility, and how both of these create a world of comfort and pleasure. It’s this idea of how you take architectural space and create an emotional response.”

Michael Gabellini

“Architecture contains sculptural elements, and also has many other relations — with music, with cinema, with literature. In architecture, there are convergences of different forms of art.”

Álvaro Siza

Next project: Waldorf Astoria New York

A Legend Returns