A Bench for a Tower

New York

25 September 2019

Manhattan

611 West 56th Street
New York
NY 10019, USA


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The First Stone programme returns to New York – this time for the unveiling of a bench by Álvaro Siza, specifically designed for the lobby of his new tower on the island of Manhattan.

Aptly named Hell’s Kitchen Bench, due to the building’s close proximity to this iconic area of the city, this original piece enters into a consummate dialogue with the sleek and refined lines of the tower. It is a striking piece of furniture, measuring almost 5 metres in length, revealing in its design the poetic modernism that is so characteristic of this architect’s work. This piece also presents another material in combination with the stone: wood, creating a symbiotic relationship between these two natural and sustainable raw-materials, evidenced by the lines of the bench itself, as well as in the contrast between the pure white of the Branco Vigária marble and the dark tone of the Sapele wood.

This bench is a gift from the First Stone programme to the city of New York and will be permanently installed within the lobby of this new skyscraper.