Morris Adjmi Architects

837 Washington Commercial Office Building

837 WASHINGTON COMMERCIAL OFFICE BUILDING

Morris Adjmi Architects

837 Washington Commercial Office Building
© Timothy Schenck

MEP
ICO

CIVIL ENGINEER
Lagan

MANUFACTURERS
Accutrack Systems, Wausau Window And Wall Systems, Arktura, Dawson Doors

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Sciame Construction

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Gilsanz Murray Steficek

OWNERS REPRESENTATIVE
Taconic Development Company

LANDSCAPE
Plant Connection

PHOTOGRAPHS
Timothy Schenck

AREA
52000 ft²

YEAR
2014

LOCATION
New York, United States

CATEGORY
Office Buildings

837 Washington Commercial Office Building
© Timothy Schenck

Text description provided by architect.

837 Washington Street is a commercial office building that embodies the cultural, economic, and political forces that have shaped New York.

Located in the city’s historic Meatpacking District, at the convergence of the rigid 1811 Commissioners’ street grid and the older picturesque streets of Greenwich Village.

837 Washington Commercial Office Building
© Timothy Schenck
837 Washington Commercial Office Building
© Timothy Schenck

It comprises two distinct but coexisting elements: a new twisting steel-and-glass volume and a rehabilitated Moderne-style brick warehouse built in 1938. The warehouse retains much of its gritty charm and historic character, including a restored metal canopy and ad-hoc arrangement of garage doors, which have been repurposed as dynamic storefront windows.

The new volume’s spiraling floor plates, inspired by the collision of the city’s street grids, are clad in a curtain wall designed to complement the original building’s factory-style fenestration, while its bold structural steel exoskeleton clearly evokes the nearby High Line elevated park.

837 Washington Commercial Office Building
Courtesy of Morris Adjmi Architects
837 Washington Commercial Office Building
Courtesy of Morris Adjmi Architects

The design also incorporates beds of native plants filling the voids created by the rotating floors, further echoing the High Line’s post-industrial garden setting while softening the interior spaces and reducing stormwater runoff.


837 Washington Commercial Office Building
Courtesy of Morris Adjmi Architects
837 Washington Commercial Office Building
Courtesy of Morris Adjmi Architects


837 Washington Commercial Office Building
Courtesy of Morris Adjmi Architects
837 Washington Commercial Office Building
Courtesy of Morris Adjmi Architects

Morris Adjmi Architects
T +1 212 9822020
Morris Adjmi Architects
60 Broad St 32nd floor, New York, NY 10004, United States