American architecture studios Handel Architects and HWKN have completed the Journal Squared development in New Jersey, USA, which contains three skyscrapers with gridded facades.
Located in Jersey City, the development stretches out over 213,676 square metres (2.3 million square feet) and contains three residential skyscrapers that vary in height and have a series of protruding rectangular volumes on their facades.
Following the first tower’s completion in 2016, the project has now wrapped with the completion of the third and final 59-storey skyscraper.
The skyscraper forms sit clustered together, joined by a shared eight-storey podium at the base. The highest of the towers reaches 70 storeys, while the other sits at 53 storeys. The tallest rises 754 feet (230 meters).
It is covered in “white metal panels and punched windows”. Strips of glazing run periodically up the tower’s facade to “break down the larger form” of the mass, according to Handel Architects.
The studios also designed the massing to step back as the tower rises.
At the base, the studios designed each tower “to gently connect with the ground” to create open, public plazas that connect directly to the building’s lobbies.
The buildings contain luxury amenities and 1,840 apartment units, while retail space and “open markets” are located at the base.
The development sits behind the Journal Square PATH train station. The teams noted that transforming the surrounding “transit hub” was an important factor in the development’s overall design.
“Witnessing our vision materialise after a decade, and realising the potency of our chosen design – one that blends timeless aesthetics with a socially activated base – is profoundly exhilarating,” said HWKN founding principal Matthias Hollwich.
“The transformation from a transit hub to a thriving urban community is what Journal Squared was always meant to achieve.”
Upon the project’s groundbreaking in 2014, the tallest tower was set to be the tallest building in New Jersey. It was eclipsed by the 2018 99 Hudson Street residential building designed by Perkins Eastman, which is also located in Jersey City and remains the state’s tallest at 274.3 metres high (900 feet).
The skyscrapers, developed by National Real Estate Advisors (NREA) and The KRE Group, are part of a larger development, which will include another set of glass-clad skyscrapers designed by Woods Bagot.
HWKN recently partnered with metaverse company Pax.world to create a series of virtual hubs informed by the ancient Silk Road, while Dezeen explored the significance of the 9/11 memorial designed by Michael Arad of Handel Architects.
The photography is by Colin Miller
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