OMA punctuates brooklyn waterfront with newly completed 'eagle + west' towers

oma transforms brooklyn’s industrial waterfront

The latest addition to the Brooklyn waterfront has taken shape with Eagle + West, a pair of stepping towers with architecture by OMA. The two buildings are accompanied by a smaller building which rises seven-stories, and are surrounded by an impressive new waterfront landscaping by James Corner Field Operations. In total, the project introduces 600,000 square-feet of housing — with 745 total units both market-rate and affordable. What’s more, the project creates 30,000 square-feet of new public space for the growing neighborhood.

The project punctuates Greenpoint’s Eagle Street and Dupont Street, which have been extended through the site to the East River. This area is now open to the public in the form of a new plaza and waterfront esplanade. The residential towers and street-level interventions together signal the transformation of the neighborhood’s post-industrial edge, extending the continually open and accessible waterfront of Brooklyn. The project had topped out in May 2021 — see designboom’s previous coverage here.

image © John Cole | @johncolephoto

eagle + west marks the threshold of brooklyn and queens

OMA‘s Eagle + West complex is perched along the northern most-tip of the Brooklyn waterfront to activate a new hinge point between Brooklyn and Queens. This unique position allows residents to access the lively and growing neighborhood of Greenpoint while taking in a never-before-seen perspective across the length of the Manhattan skyline along with the rooftops of Brooklyn.

‘Eagle + West reflects the collective ambition—with Brookfield, Park Tower Group, and the design and construction teams—to create a platform for living connecting past and future, indoor and outdoor, urban life and waterfront,’ said Jason Long, OMA Partner. ‘The two towers—complementary siblings—create an ever-shifting presence that engages both the neighborhood and the waterfront. It will be exciting to see how the project grows as people begin to make it their home.’

image © Jason O’Rear | @jasonorear

the two towers in dialogue

The architects at OMA strategically shape the two towers of Brooklyn’s Eagle + West expanding and contracting the forms for maximum efficiency within each. They lean into and away from one another. The forty-story tower widens as it rises, maximizing views and creating a dramatic face to the neighborhood. The thirty-story rower widens toward the ground to face the waterfront esplanade. Shifting terraces and overhangs emphatically link the two together — a distinct pair intimately connected by the void in between them.

The stepping divides the towers in to seven- to eight-story blocks echoing the scale of the neighboring buildings. The façade reinforces this subdivision, borrowing the language of the shingled cladding common to Greenpoint’s townhouses. A grid of precast concrete panels is carved by angled planes alternating in orientation block-by-block — a dynamic relief that reacts to the sun’s movement.

image © Ossip van Duivenbode | @ossipvanduivenbode

42,000 square-feet of amenities are distributed to form a loop at the heart of the complex. Two levels of outdoor terraces imitate the towers’ shifting forms, angled to cut in towards the courtyard and open to the waterfront. Above them, an amenity bridge looking over the Manhattan skyline links the two towers.

image © Jason O’Rear
image © Ossip van Duivenbode

image © Ossip van Duivenbode

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image © Ossip van Duivenbode

image © Jason O'Rear

image © Jason O'Rear

image © Ossip van Duivenbode

image © Jason O'Rear

image © Jason O'Rear

image © Ossip van Duivenbode

image © Jason O'Rear

image © John Cole

image © John Cole

image © John Cole

image © Jason O'Rear

image © Jason O'Rear

site plan

second floor plan

sixth floor plan

seventh floor plan

twenty-first floor plan

thirty-sixth floor plan

massing evolution

massing diagram

bridge connection diagram

facade diagram

project info:

project title: Eagle + West | @eagleandwestgpl

lead design architect: OMA New York | @omanewyork

location: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York

executive architect, unit interior designer: Beyer Blinder Belle Architects | @beyerblinderbelle

amenities interior designer, building landscape architect: Marmol Radziner | @marmolradziner

waterfront landscape architect: James Corner Field Operations | @fieldoperations

photography: © John Cole, Jason O’Rear, Ossip van Duivenbode