New renderings have been revealed for SoMA, the largest office-to-residential conversion in the Unites States at 25 Water Street in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District. Designed by CetraRuddy and developed by GFP Real Estate, Metro Loft Management, and Rockwood Capital, the project involves the replacement of the building’s brick façade with a modern fenestration featuring more expansive windows, a gut renovation of its 1.1 million square feet of interiors, and the construction of ten new stories above its former parapet. The overhaul will yield 1,300 apartments, making it the largest conversion in the country by unit count, surpassing the 566-unit redevelopment of One Wall Street a few streets to the north. The building will also feature approximately 100,000 square feet of amenities. Pavarini McGovern is the general contractor for the property, which is bound by Water Street to the north, 2 New York Plaza to the south, the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the east, and Broad Street to the west. The name SoMA pays homage to the building’s location in South Manhattan, sitting at the southernmost tip of Manhattan at the nexus of Fidi, Battery Park and the Seaport District.
The exterior renderings above and below depict the final appearance of the vertically expanded tower, the main entrance, the revamped landscaping street level along Water Street, and the new steel-framed pavilion structure featuring setbacks that make room for outdoor terraces with seating, greenery, an outdoor kitchen, and an outdoor swimming pool.
Residential amenities will include concierge services by LIVunLtd, on-site enclosed parking, and a landscaped roof terrace with grilling stations and views of the New York Harbor and Lower Manhattan.
The bulk of the indoor amenities are part of the 18,000-square-foot SoMA Athletic Club, which includes a fitness center, training studio, pilates studio, yoga studio, a basketball court, and two indoor pickleball courts. There is also a 75-foot-long swimming pool, plus an additional outdoor pool on the 25th floor. Finally, the SoMA Spa includes a steam room, a Himalayan salt room, an infrared sauna, a relaxation room, multiple treatment rooms, and a spa lounge called The Cay.
Entertainment options include a bowling alley called Bowling Green, an arcade, a sports simulator, VR studio, the SoMA Lounge featuring a karaoke room and poker room, a dining room and catering kitchen, a children’s playroom, coworking space called The Nook with private meeting rooms and a conference room, and The Lobby Lounge, offering solo and group meeting points, music rehearsal rooms, a podcast room, and an art studio.
Homes at SoMA will feature lofty ceiling heights, custom Italian kitchens outfitted with paneled appliances, in-residence washers and dryers, custom solar shades, and high-speed Wi-Fi. Compass Development Marketing Group is in charge of leasing and marketing, with model apartments staged by ASH.
SoMA is the first office-to-residential conversion project to use the 467-m housing tax incentive, which is a key policy of the mayor’s housing goal to produce 500,000 units over ten years. The program was proposed in partnership between the Mayor and Governor Hochul and authorized in April 2024 by the state legislature. The 467-m housing tax incentive is expected to produce more than 20,000 new homes across New York City.
25 Water Street’s anticipated completion date is slated for November 2025, as noted on site.
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Converting an office into a residence, or converting a residence into an office. Which is easier? Thanks to Michael Young.
The most logical thing would be from offices to residential , That’s what’s most favorable, I think.
Resi to office conversion would almost never happen. The issue is elevators. Office requires too many and resi floorplates are too small youd eat up the whole thing in no time with lifts.
I actually liked the original Brutalistic brown brick facade, a fortress-like construction with small windows. However, this would not meet fenestration requirements for residential buildings and change was necessary.
So wondering how they made such deep floor plates work with residential. Checked the website and they are all listed as studios/one bedrooms with multiple “home offices”. Conveniently there are no listed floor plans.
This is going to end in heartbreak.
They carved two courtyards through the center of the building, and took the removed square footage and added it to the top of the building. If you google: “site:somanyc.com filetype:pdf” you can find their floorplans.
If you at the floorplans mentioned, nhe rooms are cramped and often lack windows. There is a studio with separate kitchen, bath, and a living/dining room with one small window. This will be $3k a month.
I wish I could say people wont pay $3k for some of these apartments, but at that price point they would be competing with and beating LES tenements, and honestly, these studio apartments, even the ones that look into an airshaft, look better, especially since they also offer access to amenities. I really hope these large office conversions suck some of the energy out of the nearby LES rental market because the rents there have been insane, even for the nearly windowless, airshaft facing basement apartments.
Office conversions? Sure by all means. let’s provide our dediiated drone workforce with enhanced cubicles to use as residences – no doubt inspired by the caged spaces our factory-farmed animal are force to endure. Perhaps they’ll even provide freeChicken McNoggets in the lobby for the lucky cave dwellers.
Does anyone know what SoMA is an abbreviation for, if anything?
Probably just South Manhattan or something stupid like that.
Renderings have the feel of a human beehive..overwhelming.
This adaptive reuse project has two interior courts carved out of the large floor plates to provide the required Zoning, Building Code and Multiple Dwelling Law required “light and ventilation (“air”)” required for all Habitable Spaces. The FA lost for the Inner Courts was used for the new vertical enlargement.
This was not a “Brutalist” designed bldg. It was the world’s first mainframe operation for worldwide banking for Chase Manhattan Bank. Floors with small windows were floors with the IBM 360 mainframes, the flrs with larger windows were office floors.
Well, some would differ.
“Originally known as 4 New York Plaza, the building began construction in 1967 and was completed in 1969. It was built in a Brutalist style and was designed by the architecture firm Carson, Lundin & Shaw.”
You apparently don’t understand what the brutality architecture is.
“Brutalist” refers to exposed concrete facades, like the grotesque Boston City Hall. This was not ugly Brutalism, this was a beautiful brick design, and was the most attractive of the post war buildings downtown. This present design is just bland and boring.
While Brutalism often uses exposed concrete, there are exceptions. The Breuer museum building on Madison is clad in granite. I would agree that many examples of this style are not lovable, but there are exceptions.
“Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. The style commonly makes use of exposed, unpainted concrete or brick, angular geometric shapes and a predominantly monochrome colour palette; other materials, such as steel, timber, and glass, are also featured.”