Hasta La Ideas

At the corner of 47th Street and 11th Avenue in NYC now sits The West, a new building made up of 219 residences and 577,367 pounds of recycled waste. From StoneCycling, the building’s bricks comprise 60% of byproducts from the construction industry—the first time this material has been used in the US. Not only are these bricks more sustainable than traditional ones, but they’re also design-forward. Each brick—hand-brushed with glass particles for subtle shine—is unique, varying in smoothness and hues, from pistachio and nugget tones to truffle colors. This incongruent nature speaks to the history of the neighborhood, Hell’s Kitchen. “This area has such a bumpy and rough history. It’s industrial, so we felt we wanted to create a connection to both a little bit of the past and the future,” says Erikjan Vermeulen, a partner of Concrete, the design company behind the building. Read more about The West at Fast Company.

Image courtesy of Alexander Stein