Hells Kitchen Garden Courts

In the heart of the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, this residential in-fill development features central courtyard gardens and amenity terraces, granting this building its distinctive market identity. With more than a ten-minute walk to the nearest park or public square resource, Hells Kitchen’s courtyard and rooftop terrace landscapes provide residents with immediate access to their open space haven. The multi-level central garden courts, created by the project’s two apartment buildings, emerge as the physical and psychological bond that fosters community-building sensibilities. A vibrantly colored covered bridge connects tenants to the buildings' entry lobbies. As an outdoor link, residents engage daily with the courtyards’ seasonal landscape changes and their natural world qualities. The Hudson River Valley woodlands inspired the courtyards’ landscape character in response to its deep shade light conditions. Groves of columnar Red Maple trees establish a familiar forest woodland that introduces multi-storied foliage to soften and diffuse its masonry context. The garden’s trees’ rhythmic patterning and scale create an inescapable presence when experienced from within and from abutting public space interiors and private apartment views. The courtyards’ narrow and deep 13-story cavity is spatially mitigated by establishing human scale with the forest-inspired woodland garden insertions. Whether occupied or viewed, residents and visitors experience the courtyard landscapes as reminders of the healing powers of nature and its calming effect on city life.