Morris Adjmi Architects

The NoHo Historic District developed primarily during a nineteenth-century commercial boom that prompted the construction of new warehouses, storefronts, and factories to meet the demands of a quickly growing New York. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the occupants of these buildings left Manhattan in search of lower costs and better infrastructure outside the city, artists settled in the area, drawn by the large industrial loft spaces and cheap rent. 11 Great Jones, a six-story rental building located near the heart of NoHo, draws on this history with a design that both evokes the district’s past and resonates with the markedly contemporary buildings ushering in the next phase of its evolution.

The design was influenced by the classically inspired cast-iron façades of old manufacturing buildings, but the details were informed by the work of artist Donald Judd. An untitled Judd work comprising a metal column embedded in a wood box was a direct model for the pilasters, which read as Juddesque metal channels running through a brick box. The artist’s residence, located just a few blocks away, was a model for further details. The pilasters on his nineteenth-century cast-iron building increase in size as they climb the façade. Similarly, 11 Great Jones’s metal pilasters expand with each floor above street level, thereby reducing the size of their brick surrounds until the sixth floor, where they disappear completely and the naked metal pilasters become columns wrapping an outdoor terrace. Though subtle, the progression introduces a sense of movement to the building and a degree of articulation that recalls the district’s more traditional façades.