5 Cubes on 5th Avenue: Rolex USA Headquarters by David Chipperfield Architects

The new American headquarters of Rolex, located in Manhattan, will bear the signature of David Chipperfield Architects. With this 25-storey tower design, the London office won the commission to redesign the Rolex building, which has been located at the corner of 5^th Avenue and 53^rd Street since the 1970s.

The tower, which covers 165,000 square feet, will be home to office spaces for rent to other companies as well as a prestigious Rolex shop on the ground floor. The first renderings of the project reveal five vertically stacked part-volumes of various sizes; these are offset in order to create space for verdant outdoor terraces and rooftop gardens. According to David Chipperfield, his studio aimed at creating a new building that corresponds with the cultural heritage of the Swiss watchmaker at its prominent address on 5^th Avenue.

Glass lamellae arranged at right angles surround the individual cubes in the form of a semi-transparent façade with a zigzag design that echoes the structure of classic gear trains in mechanical watches. Working according to ecological building regulations, David Chipperfield Architects are striving to achieve a Platinum LEED certification from the US Green Building Council.