Eastwick Residence

One of the most transformative interventions with this penthouse renovation included its seamless integration of its rooftop landscapes. Each of the penthouse’s contemporary living spaces features visual and physical connection to a variety of roof gardens. This comprehensive and ambitious single family rooftop landscape renovation presented great opportunities and challenges. A multi-faceted landscape design concept required innovative structural and mechanical improvements to the building’s late-nineteenth infrastructure. Its multi-level level and multi-purpose rooftop landscape was conceived and spatially organized within a complimentary mix of regionally based plant communities. Organized by three principal design interventions—modulated floor surfacing, topographic manipulations, and vertical espaliered gardens. These design elements were composed as seamless extensions of penthouse interiors to blur building and landscape junctions. The main terrace level features a grove of Aspen trees as a transitional garden element within a stepped garden path which connects a sunken dining terrace. A reflection pool is used as a central terrace feature to fuse interior and outdoor space. Swaths of meadow grasses accompany vine covered treillage that visually mask any evidence of the roof’s brick parapet boundaries. The melding of a variety of differently scaled plantings visually dominates while spatially defining each terrace garden. The rooftop landscape’s immersive qualities are an unexpected and mystical natural world experience that is a diametrically opposed counterpoint to lower Manhattan’s skyline.