The Urban Audubon — "Studio Gang Begets Bird-Friendly Beauty on Tenth Avenue"

“Architecture mediates between people, environment, and even other species.”

—Jeanne Gang

"Officially known as 40 Tenth Avenue, the new 10-story office building is dramatically located between the High Line and the Hudson River. It is the first New York City creation of Studio Gang, Jeanne’s Chicago architecture firm.

Note the angled façade, carved with the building’s position relative to the sun in mind, in order to ensure that it won’t cast shadows on the High Line or endanger West Side Highway drivers with blinding glare. And here at NYC Audubon we’re pleased about another of the architect’s compassionate decisions: as The New York Times puts it, Jeanne Gang 'designs glass façades with patterns that appear decorative but address problems like solar heat or bird strikes.'

And now, 40 Tenth Avenue, with fritted glass panels on the roof garden and low reflectivity-glass on the façade, joins other high-profile bird-safe buildings in the City. . . .

A MacArthur fellow and multi-award winner who was named one of Time magazine’s '100 most influential people' in 2019, Jeanne Gang is also a lifelong birder. As a child growing up 70 miles from Chicago, she went on bird walks with a local conservationist. Today she birds with fellow Chicagoans, and whenever she goes for a run, always brings her binoculars. Jeanne has been concerned about bird strikes against glass since 2003, when she won a competition to design a nature center in Calumet, Illinois. Her research uncovered a shocking number of birds killed in collisions with reflective glass windows. To learn more, she joined others to collect dead and injured birds from buildings known as the worst offenders in nearby Chicago, following in the footsteps of our own Project Safe Flight volunteers in New York City. Fritted glass panels on the building’s garden rooftop are visible to birds.

With 40 Tenth Avenue, Jeanne is aiming for gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation, the next-to-highest level in the green building certification system. Studio Gang’s next Manhattan project is the upcoming addition to the American Museum of Natural History. Naturally, it too is being designed with birds, people, and surroundings in mind.

NYC Audubon welcomes this beautiful new ecology-minded structure. It may serve as an inspiring example for future bird-friendly design, as it includes many features now required in all new construction in the City, thanks to new legislation recently passed by the New York City Council."

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