5 Luxury Condos Nestled Next to the World’s Top Museums

Jean Nouvel’s 53W53 tower in New York overlooks Central Park. Photo: Rendering by Hayes Davidson

Looking to further elevate their already architecturally significant residences, real-estate developers are building relationships with world-renowned cultural institutions. The trend started in Denver, where acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind crafted a razor-sharp extension for the Denver Art Museum, then cleverly concealed the project’s parking garage with an inventive residential building. The resulting glass-and-steel structure won an American Institute of Architects award for design excellence—and quickly sold all of its 56 units.

In New York, Pritzker Prize laureate Jean Nouvel will open his striking 53W53 come spring. Steps from the Museum of Modern Art, the 1,050-foot-tall tower will also provide over 40,000 square feet of space for the storied institution starting next fall. “MoMA approved both architect and conceptual design,” says David Penick from Hines, the company developing the project. “In some ways, museumgoers won’t even know they’ve come into our building—there’s a seamless continuity of space.”

Housing 145 condos—which will boast interiors conceived by architect and designer Thierry Despont—the building will have the right to host events in the museum’s sculpture garden, Penick reveals, “and it’s no small task to throw a party there.”

Buyers have exclusive access to MoMA’s sculpture garden for events. Photo: Oscity/Shutterstock

The galleries themselves are being designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) in collaboration with Gensler. DS+R is also busy adding cultural cachet to nearby Hudson Yards, where its dynamic arts hub, known as The Shed, will nestle into an adjacent 88-story residential tower, set to debut this year.

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A terrace of the Zaha Hadid–designed One Thousand Museum Residences offers sweeping views of the Miami waterfront. Photo: Rendering Courtesy of One Thousand Museum Residences

In Chicago, architect Jeanne Gang recently completed her dazzling Solstice on the Park, a 26-story structure overlooking the Museum of Science and Industry. And in Miami, Zaha Hadid’s One Thousand Museum Residences is just down the street from the Herzog & de Meuron–designed Pérez Art Museum Miami and the new Frost Museum of Science. Due to be completed early next year, the scintillating 83-unit building was one of the last projects Hadid designed before her sudden death in 2016. It will surely be a testament to her architectural genius.

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2018 Winter Issue under the headline Cultural Capital. Subscribe to the magazine.