2014 Americas Prize

Lincoln Mil57 Tower
Antonio Imvery Pellerano and Ninouska Nova
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Jun-13
PRIMARY AUTHOR
Simples Arquitectura Ninouska Nova Arquitectos y Asociados
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Randolph Mercedes and Antonio Leon (Architect ) Campagna Ricart y Asociados (Civil engineer) Conelca (Electric Engineer)
CLIENT
Alejandro Zeller
PHOTOGRAPHER
Ricardo Briones
OBJECTIVE
Given the compact site, the building form seeks to maximize efficiency, with an impactful, attractive look. The facades were conceived thinking of the interior climate of the building and the functionality of the interior spaces. The front, west-facing glazed façade is protected by an interesting metallic screen, referred to as “the spider”. The sides of the building are conceived as opaque surfaces to ensure new neighbors would not interrupt the privacy of the offices, anticipating the fact that in the near future the adjacent plots will be developed as highrises. These ventilated rainscreens help insulate the offices and also allow for more flexibility of interior layouts. The building’s simple geometry plays with the user’s perception of the building by distorting the scale of the interior elements, hiding floor breaks with the metal structure and an oversized red “door frame” marks the entrance to the lobby. This way the building becomes a “small” great building. This frame provides a solution that is both complex yet simple, large and small, running from boredom and communicating with its audience, stimulating their eyes and minds in a context of otherwise concrete boxes with never ending punched openings. This daring solution assumes its potential as an iconic building, promoting not only itself but all great architecture. The building’s simple geometry plays with the user’s perception of the building by distorting the scale of the interior elements, hiding floor breaks with the metal structure and an oversized red “door frame” marks the entrance to the lobby. This way the building becomes a “small” great building. This frame provides a solution that is both complex yet simple, large and small, running from boredom and communicating with its audience, stimulating their eyes and minds in a context of otherwise concrete boxes with never ending punched openings. This daring solution assumes its potential as an iconic building, promoting not only itself but all great architecture.
CONTEXT
The Lincoln Mil57 tower is a 15,700m2 office building located in one of the busiest avenues of the commercial center of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. This location inspired the creation of an entry plaza to allow for views to and from the building and an intimate gathering space between the street and the lobby. These unique, semi-private gathering spaces are not common in the city. The dramatic front elevation consists of a metallic shading structure referred to as “the spider,” that protects the interior spaces from the strong western sun. The tower looks to become a landmark within the central commercial district not only for its architecture and function but for integrating a frontal plaza as an urban space that links the building to its immediate context and users, looking to change the way pedestrians experience the building and its surroundings. The success of Lincoln Mil57 has instigated a new wave of commercial building design and construction in the city of Santo Domingo that intends to elevate the overall aesthetic of the city by being a visually and functionally interesting addition to the city skyline. Its contribution has not only helped educate passerbys but also clients and owners about the added value - financial and cultural - of interesting, environmentally conscious design. A new market has emerged where existing conventional architecture, static for a generation, is being displaced with more interesting and iconic buildings that showcase innovative solutions to our changing city and climate.
PERFORMANCE
The ground floor houses a lobby with commercial space, with 9 levels of office above and 4 below-grade parking levels. Functionally, the building is serviced by a central core with a U-shaped open floor plan. Even thought the client’s preference is that the tower be occupied by a sole tenant, the possibility of each floor to be divided into four spaces allows for greater flexibility. The tenth floor includes of an outdoor terrace providing a gathering space with beautiful city and ocean views. The front façade shading system is a metallic structure installed in front of the glass curtain wall with a separation that varies between 1.5m and 2.00m from the glass. The custom structure is composted of a 3-dimentional irregular pyramids that hold fixed louvers that help reduce incident solar radiation to the building. The structure was prefabricated off site and then transported and re-assembled on site for ease of construction and fidelity to the design. The necessity to protect the west facing front façade from the afternoon sun was the principal reason to experiment with the brisse-soleil as a functional and aesthetic resource. Several main aspects of the project make it a new icon in our urban context: a contemporary aesthetic that contributes to the architectural interest of the city center, a building skin that filters the exterior conditions to provide more comfortable interior conditions with reduced resource demand, a frontal plaza that links the exterior and interior urban environments and the highest quality of construction and operation.











