These days, many Manhattanites like to complain about the sky-high point towers sprouting like ultra-tall mushrooms across their cityscape. ZHA’s 520 West 28th is the antithesis of those projects. Abutting a stretch of the beloved High Line, the luxury low-rise residential building goes to great lengths to “layer” into its setting, even as its futuristic facade of interlocking brushed-steel chevrons presents a forward-looking face to the neighbourhood.

The building’s sensitivity starts with its height, a modest 11 storeys that subtly serve as a bridge between the street and the High Line’s elevated walkways. Its robust style gives a nod to the district’s industrial past. And those steel chevrons have been hand-brushed and -tinted, an attention to materiality and workmanship further reflected in such impeccable interior features as 3.4-metre coffered ceilings and sleek Boffi kitchens by Zaha Hadid Design.

As the architects have pointed out, more than 350 art galleries are located in the environs of 520 West 28th, which aims to do its discerning neighbourhood proud. On that score, it has succeeded: This rare project that only the most cantankerous New Yorker could object to is art as well as architecture.

AZ Awards category Architecture: Multi-Unit Residential Buildings Project 520 West 28th Location New York City, U.S. Firm Zaha Hadid Architects, London, U.K.