When ICRAVE’s design team considered the makeup of the amenity complex at 21 West End, a newly opened mixed-use apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side, they asked themselves: “How do we keep someone from leaving New York City?” They knew their millennial target demographic would want to move to the suburbs once their families began to grow. Appealing to young people, particularly young families, would mean making a space that served their needs.
“We mapped out each of the different demographics we thought would rent here, and for each of them we said, 'OK, if I were that person and I could have one more room in my apartment, what would that space do for me?’ ” says Lionel Ohayon, CEO of the Manhattan-based design studio. “That’s how we began to make a case for what the amenity space would actually have.”
The development's amenity space, which is set to open in the coming weeks, offers a multitude of extra rooms including a hobby/workshop room, a café, a clubroom and golf simulator, yoga and boxing studios, and an indoor dog park, among many more. The children’s playroom, shown above, is anchored by a giant, climbable wooden dinosaur and features child-height octagonal windows into the dog run next door.
"Each piece of the 'vertical village' is meant to offer tenants a natural and inviting extension of their apartment, creating the perfect New York City neighborhood available on their doorstep," says Stephen Benjamin, president and CEO at The Dermot Co., 21 West End's developer.
