Tres Puentes Residences
Defined by bold color and form, Tres Puentes is a fully-affordable, two-building addition to an existing senior housing project in the South Bronx. The name means "Three Bridges" in Spanish, referencing the neighboring Harlem River bridges. Connected via gardens as well as internal hallways, the newly-combined complex offers a variety of vibrant and distinct spaces to its residents.
The volumetrically complex West building is a response to the unusual multi-street intersection flanking the west side of the site. Its tapered floorplan has several closely-angled setbacks, resulting in an elegantly taught volume. Relatively toned-down, contextual brown brick is punctured by iridescent orange cutouts. As the corner turns to the internal side of the complex, the building's brick appears to be sheared off by a burst of bright orange metal. Two interstitial gardens are lined with this orange material, flooding the gardens with super-saturated light.
The more orthogonal East building combines similarly contextual brown brick with a rich midnight blue throughout its facade. The rear yard of the East building contains a lush, terraced garden. After dark, the corner staircase of the building becomes an illuminated beacon.
Photographed Fall 2019
Architect: Shakespeare Gordon Vlado Architects
Client: West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing
Builder: Procida Companies
Landscape Architect: Joanna Pertz Landscape Architecture
I love the built environment. My photographic practice is anchored by my fascination with design, urbanity and the tactile experience of our surroundings. I believe that our built environment is in tension between intentionality and circumstance, the whole made more powerful by the nature of its duality. My passion is creating photographic representations at the intersection of design, implementation, and context.
I believe in telling stories. Great photography creates narrative strings that enhance our understanding of the built environment. I use my experience to highlight, finesse, contextualize the ideas embedded in each project. My goal is to explore implementations of great design, distilling and connecting photographic vignettes that offer insight into the ideas that shape our world.
I began my career as an architectural designer and refined my focus to the representation of architecture. My interest is in built work - the physical manifestation of design. Through scouting, planning, photographing and all the steps that come after, I refine the representation of each project to best reflect the goals of my clients.
I hold a Bachelor of the Arts in Architecture from Columbia University and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts. I am based in Manhattan and available for assignments worldwide.
You can reach me at info@alexanderseverin.com