I A RC HIT ECTU RE I

SHOW &TELLFIVE FRANKLIN PLACE

Fabric plays an u ncredited role in a rchitecture, mostly in the for m of drawn shades that give glass-skinned boxes a second, inner hid e. In this pla n for a Tribeca building, published here for the first t ime, the great Dutch architect Ben Van Berkel bri ngs cloth-or the idea of cloth-out of doors, swaddling a twenty-sto ry condo in black met al sear vcs t hat thicken an d th in as t hey wind their way around. T he facade becomes a b urka, a for m of resistance to the im mod est t ra nsp arency of J!;las.~. Five Fran klin Place, the first New York project for Van Berkel and his firm UNStudio, comes at a moment when th e city has re....erted to its natural suspicion ofa rchi tecture as public spectacle. In t hat clois tered spirit, the building will turn its inky back t o Broad way and face the cobbled alley a h alf-block o....er. Van Berkel is not in the habit ofdesigning buildings to go unno ticed, h owever, and this one's glossy casing will attract enigmatic attention in the same way that a masked figure would. Its mission is to eke m ultimillion-dollar luxe outofa tigh t lot, and to do it with cleverness. cu rves, and fine detail. Ai; it goes up, Fi....e Fra nklin Place breaks free of its stu mpy ne ighbors, and each apartme nt acquires a second floor and a rooftcrracc where even the building machi nery gets to inhabit a chic wh ite pod. There, the shroud drops, giving way to classic rooftop exhibitionismthe kind that binoculars ....'ere mad e for. JUSTIN DAVIDSON