Sky House is a penthouse located in New York City’s Upper West Side. The client required a home where the urban context would not be visible revealing a sanctuary with open skies and the indoors and outdoors shifting throughout. The design challenged of creating a penthouse on a historic building roof was dictated per NYC’s zoning laws that require that the roof top structure not be seen from street level. Through zoning and sunlight studies a complex mapping was generated. This single surface when manipulated created a series of folding planes which not only masked the urban surrounds but also allowed only sky and required sunlight to penetrate the interior of the structure. The building required light weight construction. Aluminum cladding with Panelite Clearshade insulating glass units where used for the openings on the oblique. Glass panels on the vertical axis were standard UV insulated glass panels.

Material Used:

1. Panelite Clearshade insulating glass

2. Pella - Custom glass doors

3. Bamco, Inc Aluminum Solid Plate Panels