345 Meatpacking

Future Green’s Design for this dramatic residential building in Manhattan’s gritty-to-glamorous Meatpacking District inserts a colorful landscape into a highly-visible urban site, embracing future resiliency. Our design drew inspiration from the neighboring High Line and historic meatpacking loading canopies—robust industrial infrastructure that welcomed vines, wildflowers, “weed trees,” and a rugged vision of urban wilderness.

For the building, Future Green designed a densely-planted entrance marquee with wild sumac trees and trailing plants spilling through a pattern of openings, bringing light and vegetation to the streetscape below. The different plant species were carefully selected to reflect and change with the seasons. Including some plants that bloom according to the time of day, emulating the vibrant night scene of the neighborhood.

At the common roof garden, meadow-grasses are sustainably irrigated through rainwater collection. The palette for these overgrown spaces, as well as the building’s integrated parapet plantings, makes use of rangy and resilient species, providing fuel for pollinators while integrating the natural with the built.