Eran Chen, ODA

Philosophically speaking, what design principles do you hold most sacred? What particular ideas and theories guide your practice most?

Architect Eran Chen founded ODA in 2007, less than decade after arriving in New York from Israel. Since then, the firm’s amenity-laden designs have gained global renown, helping define a new vertical and quality-of-life standard for modern urban living. We chatted with Chen to recap the success of his mold-breaking practice, some of its notable projects to date, and to hear what’s next.

Even just looking at it from the Williamsburg Bridge, 420 Kent gives this sense of being a world of its own, this sort of alternate NYC reality where you can take a boat home from work and have a waterfront lobster dinner under the sunset. How did your team cross-stitch the project’s retail tenants, community spaces, and more than 850+ rental residences into a cohesive whole?

I remember walking the site for the first time and thinking how great it could be to live here if I combined three things in one place. First, apartments with spectacular views of the East River and Manhattan. Second, a weekend house with large spaces for entertaining, a commercial kitchen, an amazing dining room, indoor outdoor lounges, and an epic swimming pool. And finally, a waterfront park with cool coffee shops, local restaurants, and wine bars. 420 Kent is all about the experience of living, and ODA’s architecture, interior design, and landscape design frame it together with a cohesive vision.

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At ODA, we believe that architecture gives shape to the future and, through that, can dramatically improve people’s lives in cities. Since modern reality is changing at an unprecedented pace and architecture takes time, we constantly challenge the status quo, question old methods, evade conventions — simultaneously embracing our expertise while learning and adapting. We build consensus through storytelling, cognizant of reality but focusing on the path, not the obstacles. We dare to think differently and prolifically, through the necessary infusion of theory and reality. This requires a focused investment in every building, and we believe our buildings always return the favor. We design buildings that expand the envelope, allowing people to discover new territories for themselves, while creating enhanced experiences and a sense of connection to place and others. We design buildings that are generous and resilient, through fostering sustainable communities that encourage the inhabitants as well as the surrounding public realm to flourish.

In Argentina, you adapted an old municipal parking garage into a mixed-use concept with offices, cafes, and abundant green space. In Rotterdam, you added a bold addition to that city’s equivalent of the Farley Building, a historic post office that survived being bombed out in WWII. As a designer, how does reinventing rate on the fulfillment scale compared to starting from scratch?

“We constantly challenge the status quo, question old methods, evade conventions.”

Paseo Gigena, featuring commercial and retail space with an elevated public park, located in Buenos Aires. Rendering: Secchi Smith.

10 Jay, in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood, integrates the façade of historic Arbuckle Brothers sugar refinery into a thoroughly modern commercial building, keeping with the industrial heritage of its surroundings while introducing something new and exciting — all while beckoning sweeping Manhattan and East River views. Image: Pavel Bendov.

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ODA hasn’t just designed two of the largest apartment buildings in North Brooklyn, but some of the biggest to ever go up in the city. What’s the single greatest challenge in designing an 800 or 1,000-unit project vs. something more boutique? When does scaling up make things easier?

I'd say it's neither easier nor more difficult. Scale allows more ideas and narratives to be layered into the fold, and when done right brings more intricacy while maintaining structural clarity. When we design a thousand homes, we'd like people to find intimacy while also finding one another, and have personal moments while being part of a larger community. There's great opportunity to create pockets of human interactions across different scales, and that's exciting. On an urban scale, projects can have a major impact on their surroundings, and we'd like that to be a positive one. If a building or a group of buildings joins a neighborhood, they should contribute and make the neighborhood better — more accessible, open, safer, attractive, and engaging. So our buildings look different because they function differently, and they're transformative because they positively transcend their surroundings.

I've designed renovations at a handul of Tribeca’s historic addresses, including 10 Hubert Street, 5 Franklin Place, 93 Worth, and others, but the project I’m currently working on is very special to me. Recently, my family and I moved to Tribeca, where I converted an 1820 Queen Anne industrial building into a four-bedroom home. The process of designing but also building my own home inspired me to do it again for others. So, I found two 25-foot twin buildings, at 62-64 Reade Street, and I'm designing and developing six very special homes with both signature architecture and interior design. The project will be completed next spring and I can’t wait to share it with the world.

At 420 Kent, ODA paired three glass towers on two bases with a rambling waterfront esplanade. The 857-unit rental community boasts rarely-found amenities and 20,000 square feet of retail space, including an outpost of Bushwick favorite Sea Wolf. Images: Albert Vecerka.

In Rotterdam, The Netherlands, ODA reimagined a 1916 post office — one of few historic structures at the city's core to survive WWII — with the addition of a 155-meter residential tower. The project is expected to be complete in 2025. Rendering courtesy of ODA.

We hear you’re working on a new residential project in Tribeca. Give us the teaser.

We never start from scratch. There's always something to build upon. If there's no building on a site, there is always the history of the site itself and its surroundings, there is local culture and materials, and our work is always a story that is written in and for a place. It starts before we come in and will continue after we leave. We merely hold the pen, at a certain time in history trying to bring life to communities. The more substantial the story we find when we arrive, the more interesting our work becomes.

Portrait: Ohad Kab.

Eran Chen, ODA