3 WEST 13TH STREET

CLIENT

Ivan Pavicic

ARCHITECT

AO Architects

YEAR

2007

LOCATION

New York City

VISUALS

John Bartlestone

At 3 West 13th Street, a narrow lot houses a six-floor structure comprised of 2 retail spaces and 7 condominiums on the upper floors. The building faade is generally illuminated from below, while each residential floor is distinguished by a floor-wide linear LED strip mounted at ceiling level. The light from these strips is confined to the area framing the windows and is designed not to spill over into the private interior. This scheme creates a series of stacked, multicolored "light boxes" which can be individually controlled to affect a sequence of varying color displays, from monochromatic to a gentle fade transitioning from one color to another up the building faade. In this case, the lighting works to emphasize the large negative spaces visible from the building's exterior, giving it a feeling of light transparency rather than heavy density.