1101 Western Avenue

The waterfront has always been home.
The postindustrial reintroduction of housing to the waterfront
is a movement back to nature as the waterfront was first
habitat to creatures and humans alike. The dynamics of a tide
line is fusion of both land and sea engaged with each other.
AMLI 1101 Western is a celebration of both.
The project is front row to the waterfront redevelopment,
planned in concert with the transformative demolition and
removal of the viaduct. It straddles two worlds – one of the
past and one of the future. A beach, a staggering bluff of
fenestration, it is a hybrid landscape at the intersection of
technological and the natural.
Not quite a tower, yet not quite it’s low slung neighbors to the
west, it marks a transition zone from crystal cathedrals to an
infinite horizon. A heavy dark base, eroded by lapping waves
but also movements of people create light filled eddies. Its
shimmering scales beckon from the shore. From its core rises
a glazed tower ascending willfully to the downtown core
beyond.