On September 4, and for a little over a week afterwards, Mini, the lovable German car brand, will launch its rooftop NYC experiment for its “Creating Use of Space” campaign. The Mini Rooftop outdoor space will function as a park when it opens atop a building in Clinton (Hell’s Kitchen). Mini wants to reach customers who typically don’t visit Mini dealers, but who will climb aboard an old freight elevator and ascend stairs to a 4,500-sq.-ft. rooftop oasis that’s a cross between a park and a nightclub.
The roof garden features iconic natural elements that are designed with an urban approach. A grassy hill rises 8 ft., in somewhat of a Mini shape, above the aluminum gridded floor to offer a view of the NYC skyline and the Hudson River. A 28-ft.-high light tower turns into a signifier and an event-lighting sculpture. A performance platform is embedded into an existing billboard's structure, and a panorama bar overlooks the Hudson River. The elements are tied together with the lightweight grid that’s deployed across the site.
The LED lighting, according to Scott Davis, project manager from lighting vendor Bentley Meeker, features Altman SpectraPAR™ low-heat, low-power-consumption, high-output lighting fixtures with color-mixing capabilities. The SpectraPAR’s communication interface uses the Color Kinetics data-interface system.
The NYC-based HWKN architecture firm, which designed the project, markets its work as “econic” – ecological plus iconic, an architecture that goes beyond sustainability and, through its presence, helps bring about a new attitude. HWKN checked out 180 different rooftops before it landed on the Hell’s Kitchen site, which had the right zoning and an open-minded landlord.
HWKN’s founders Marc Kushner and Matthias Hollwich spoke with Andrew Loxley, a writer for Mini’s website. They said they found it schocking that, although Manhattan is among the world’s most densely populated places, where every square inch can have triple-figure values, that the city’s roofscape is underused. They see the Mini project as a democratic gesture that enables the general public to enjoy views traditionally open to the wealthy.
To display its sincerity in promoting a new viewpoint, Mini isn’t showing cars at the event, though it’s offering a shuttle service.