On Wednesday, the spectacular Swarovski star, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, topped the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. With over three million Swarovski crystals, the star is over nine feet in diameter and weighs 900 pounds - it is a true artistic and engineering masterpiece.

Stunning lighting can add drama to any space, not just Rockefeller Center. The illumination lights provide and their architecture can be pure art. Many luxury residential buildings are using dramatic light fixtures as sculptural centerpieces and/or to highlight aspects of their buildings.

Below, we have put together a list of 11 incredible lights to illuminate your imagination.

88&90 Lexington  

Credit: Colin Miller

88&90 Lexington beautiful highlights old and new by seamlessly blending a classic pre-war building with a contemporary post-war building in the heart of NoMad. The buildings are united at their base by a bright, expansive lobby that features a multi-light pendant fixture that hangs above the desk and illuminates the building’s entrance. A neon “88” and “90” mark the entrance to each building, emphasizing the location of their separate elevator banks.

The Kent

Credit: Donna Dotan Photography

At The Kent, an art deco-inspired luxury condominium on the Upper East Side, Champalimaud Design commissioned a $33,000 pair of gilded chandeliers from Czech glass manufacturer, Preciosa. Designed to emphasize the Drawing Room’s cove, gold leaf ceiling, the sculptural work of art is composed of a series of luminescent glass orbs that refract light from within and reflect light from above.

40 East End

Credit:Binyan Studios/Lightstone

The project is an architectural collaboration between world-renowned and award-winning architects Deborah Berke Partners and GKV (Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel,) Architects.  The chandelier’s design was custom by Deborah Berke in consultation with lighting consultant Bliss Fasman. The design of 40 East End is a modern interpretation of local historic architecture, resulting in a dignified structure that grows from an articulated base and steps back neatly as it rises. Similarly, the design of the chandelier harkens to a bygone era of opulence and glamour with a modern edge. The chandelier is custom and composed of 82 glass rods.  Each glass rod is 3’-6” long by 3” diameter by 3/16” thick.  It is fully frosted in the middle from sandblasting and gradually fades to clear on the top and bottom.  These are suspended by a LED pin light which illuminates the glass tube in the center and also gradually fades away on the top and bottom.

Madison Square Park Tower

Credit: Evan Joseph

Standing at 777 feet tall, Madison Square Park Tower is the tallest residential building between Midtown and Lower Manhattan. The building’s interiors and five full floors of lavish amenities were designed by the preeminent London-based hospitality designer, Martin Brudnizki. Inside the lobby, an enormous glass bowl chandelier with bronze detailing hangs above the lobby desk, which was custom designed by Martin and created by luxury Czech lighting company Preciosa Lighting.

100 East 53rd Street

Credit: Bjorg Magnea

At 100 East 53rd Street, art collector Aby Rosen's new modernist midtown tower, designer William T. Georgis commissioned Seguso from Venice Italy (a company that's been around since the 1300s) to create a dramatic crystal Murano chandelier with beautiful, coral-like tubes. It is the focal point of the private residents' club.

One Waterline Square

Credit: Noe & Associates with The Boundary

Designed by Richard Meier & Partners Architects and appointed by Champalimaud Design, the gracious lobby of One Waterline Square is a glass-walled, light-filled entrance overlooking the five-acre Waterline Square site. The stately space, located just inside a graceful porte-cochere, creates a sophisticated entrance and sense of arrival for the building's residents. Designed by an Amsterdam-based art collective, the lobby's bespoke ceiling light installation known as "Flylight" is made of delicate glass tubes and fashioned to interact with its surroundings, reflecting light from the marble and metal details inside the lobby and the Hudson River beyond it.

One Hudson Yards

Credit: Scott Frances for Related Companies

One Hudson Yards is Related Rentals’ newest rental building featuring 178 high-design luxury residences with a curated collection of art, wellness and lifestyle amenities and services. The 33-story building features bold architecture by Davis Brody Bond with layouts by Executive Architect Ismael Leyva Architects and rich interiors by the award-winning Andre Kikoski Architect. The lobby features a Francois sculpture called "Squiggle," which is a line drawing in three dimensions, a gold leaf table dubbed Table d’oree, designed 1961 by Yves Klein using 3,000 sheets of gold leaf, glass, acrylic, wood and steel, and a custom light sculpture by Lasvit.

70 Vestry

Credit: Related Companies

At 70 Vestry, Related Companies' boutique waterfront condominium by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Related commissioned internationally acclaimed artist Alyson Shotz to create an original sculpture that interacts with the motion of the sun throughout the day and year. The iridescent large-scale sculpture, titled “Aileron,” has a shape and structure reminiscent of a butterfly wing and the variegated luminescent color results from a nanoscale configuration. Aileron is thoughtfully paired with white oak paneling, Fior di Bosco marble, and handcrafted furniture personally selected by AD100 designer Daniel Romualdez for the lobby as a way to play off the natural light of the gorgeous space that will soon welcome residents such as Tom Brady and Gisele Bünchen.

One Hundred Barclay

Credit: Rich Kaplan

The central pendant light fixtures were designed by the architect of the building, winner of the American Institute of Architect's "Architect of the Century" award and father of American Art Deco, Ralph Walker.  The design is based on many of the geometries and motifs found throughout the building, notably the setbacks of the upper stories and the articulation of grapevines as a symbol of the interconnectivity of the human experience upon the advent of the telephone.

The lights serve as a focal point in a space originally crafted with little natural light.  DXA studio and PHT Lighting added additional, discreet fixtures atop the pendant to accentuate the gilded murals by Edgar Williams depicting the history of human communication above. Additionally warmer temperature high efficiency bulbs were added to the gilded niches along the ceiling and linear, uplighting fixtures were added beneath the bronze screens at the entry to unify all of the lighting in the lobby as a single composition, with the pendants as their center.

 27 E. 79th

Credit The Neighborhood

Located in the heart of the Upper East Side, this new condominium has stunning lanterns on the front facade of the ground floor known as “T-shaped lanterns“ in the late 19th-century taste. The decorative esthetic choice for this project is based on the French late 19^th century, particularly Parisian.  It brings together complex decorative components marrying a plethora of materials, it is the industrial era with iron in the construction, which produced, following the Eiffel Tower, buildings in Paris known as “eclectic” which housed among others, famous newspapers from the time period such as L’Aurore.  These lanterns are made with iron elements, put together, then patinated in harmony with the ironwork of the façade. For the glass globes, a wooden mold will be made to be able to pour and to shape the molten glass in a way to make its definitive form.

Brooklyn Point

Credit: Evan Joseph

AD 100 designer Katherine Newman's first project in Brooklyn is a major step for the residential interiors expert, who typically only takes on five select private home projects a year primarily in New York's exclusive upper East Side. Extell tapped Katherine to design the interiors and 40,000 square feet of amenities spaces of this towering residential structure located in the rapidly transforming Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood.

Katherine's team has paid homage to Brooklyn's history with an industrial-informed aesthetic that simultaneously brings a sense of elevated Manhattan style to Downtown Brooklyn. A stunning collection of globe lights will hang in the double height lounge, illuminating the welcoming interiors. They lights now hang in the sales gallery, and will be transported into the building upon completion.

The post Elegant Lighting Fixtures Illuminate Opulence appeared first on Haute Residence by Haute Living.

Below are eleven examples of the newest trend which harkens back to the past and adds visual dimension to the modern skyline.

30 Warren
Photo Credit: Courtesy of 30 Warren

30 Warren is a modern, boutique condominium designed by the innovative and impressive Parisian firm Post-Office Architectes. 30 Warren's design team pioneers a new form of custom-crafted architectural concrete for the building's facade that both connects with the surrounding architecture while employing a more avant-garde aesthetic. Incredibly thin yet strong, the large panels of architectural concrete function together as a veil that encapsulates the building. The ribbed pattern adds an additional texture and visual element, while the deep gray offers a warmth and domesticity to the condominium.

130 William

Photo credit:Binyan Studios

Starchitect Sir David Adjaye was inspired to create a building that pushed away from the typical commercial feel of glass and, instead, embraced New York’s history of masonry architecture. 130 William’s custom, hand-cast façade is a contemporary interpretation of the stonework that characterized classic Manhattan architecture. The textured façade gives way to smooth and delicately-crafted details, which all come together with refined bronze detailing. Another signature feature is the unique silhouette of rhythmic large-scale arched windows that draw inspiration from the lofts that once populated the area.

207 West 79th Street

Photo credit: Courtesy of 207 W. 79th

An Anbau development, designed by renowned Morris Adjmi Architects, is located in the Landmarked District of the Upper West Side and combines the classic appeal of pre-war residences with the expansive spaces of modern loft-like living. The boutique condominium's exterior features more than 200 panels of handcrafted terra-cotta by California-based ceramics firm Gladding McBean, one of the oldest in the country circa 1875, and an Art Deco-inspired cornice crown with detailing that pays homage to the design of old world neighborhoods. The terra-cotta motifs were created using traditional techniques which pressed into molds, baked, dried, and trimmed by sculptors, and flown in from California. The end result is that no two pieces are exactly the same, complete with the sculptors' thumbprints.

180 East 88th Street

Photo Credit: March Made for DDG

Situated in the Upper East Side's Carnegie Hill neighborhood, DDG's luxury condominium 180 East 88th Street features a striking facade comprised of nearly 600,000 handmade bricks from acclaimed Danish brickworks Petersen Tegl. Inspired by the pre-war boom in high-rise masonry construction in New York during the 1920s – 1940s, DDG’s design team sought to pay homage to the lost art of traditional craftsmanship as well as connect the building to the surrounding architecture. The distinctive bricks, which include the elongated Kolumba style, possess a thoroughly unique texture and color palette that reflect their handmade quality and offer a welcome contrast to the numerous glass towers dotting the Manhattan landscape.

Woolworth Tower Residences

Photo credit:Courtesy of Alchemy Properties

Under the architectural and aesthetic direction of Thierry W Despont, the top thirty floors of the Woolworth Building are being re-imagined into the celebrated Woolworth Tower Residences of thirty-three prized condominium residences. Alchemy Properties, who developed the property, have spent more than $20 million restoring the striking terra-cotta facade of this iconic tower. The restoration included the polychromatic terra-cotta surrounds which were sent to Boston Valley Terra-cotta, to be restored, repaired or recast.

Two Fifty West 81st Street

Photo credit: Williams New York

Developed by Alchemy Properties (the same team behind the Woolworth Tower Residences), is a curated collection of 31 ultra-luxury condominium residences designed by critically acclaimed firm Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the kings of limestone. The elegant and classic silhouette of the building is punctuated by setbacks and decorative window openings. Then finished in elevated limestone and handmade grey brick articulated frieze details is inspired by the grand pre-war apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

88&90 Lexington

Photo credit: Courtesy of Workshop/APD

88&90 Lexington is an architectural anomaly that celebrates the marriage of old and new by merging a classic pre-war building with a modern post-war building in the heart of NoMad. The two buildings had separate identities in their previous lives, 88 Lex, the pre-war half, was a rental building while 90 Lex, the modern half, was a former commercial office space. Built in 1927, 88 Lex features a sand-colored limestone façade with art deco detailing that was preserved during the building’s conversion.

1010 Park Avenue

Photo credit: Williams New York

Located along Park Avenue’s historic district, 1010 Park Avenue is a rare ground-up development showcasing 11 full-floor and duplex residences. Although the development is a new addition along the Park Avenue corridor, the exterior was designed with respect to its surroundings. Architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle created a facade composed of textural Manhattan schist on the lower floors while outfitting the rest of the exterior in hand-cut Indiana limestone, to create a dynamic but respectful facade.

The Amberly

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Amberly

Situated at the nexus of Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Downtown Brooklyn, The Amberly is a highly anticipated and soaring new 33-story luxury rental tower with an incredibly unique facade. Internationally renowned architecture firm Woods Bagot designed The Amberly – its first tower in North America – to be a modern interpretation of the historic brownstones of Brooklyn. The warm, terracotta facade, was intelligently patterned to maximize light and views in the living and dining areas by giving way to floor-to-ceiling windows, while maintaining privacy within the bedrooms.

242 Broome

Photo Credit: QuallsBenson

Powerful and sculptural in form, 242 Broome, the first condominium within the Essex Crossing development on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, stands as a testament to the ongoing evolution of its neighborhood. Designed by SHoP Architects, the firm behind Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the building features a champagne-colored façade of anodized aluminum, with bends and angles in the metal that resemble the iconic fire escapes of the neighboring buildings. Starting at the fifth floor, the building begins to twist in shape slightly westward, allowing for dramatic views, natural light and maximum privacy.

The Lindley

Photo credit: Courtesy of The Lindley

The Lindley, a new 20-story, full-service condominium building designed inside and out by Rawlings Architects, best known for the boutique SIXTY LES Hotel, Greenwich Village’s 215 Sullivan and NoHo's upcoming 40 Bleecker, The Lindley's exterior is a timeless design with a facade comprised of varying shapes and shades of brick, giving the building both depth and texture.

The post NYC Buildings That Want To Be Judged By Their Covers appeared first on Haute Residence by Haute Living.

Via 57 West

Photo courtesy of enclos.com

First, it’s a tetrahedron. Digest that for a minute. Second, what more could you expect from Danish wiz Bjarke Ingels, the architect who has made it his business to defy convention? Now based in NYC, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People. We can see why.

325 Kent Avenue

Photo courtesy of StreetEasy.com

The Domino Sugar Factory was an iconic building on the Williamsburg waterfront but destined to be equally distinctive is the rental complex shaped like a (square) donut. Owned by Two Trees Management and designed by SHoP Architects, the 522 Unit luxury rental was completed last year and occupied by July 2017.                                                                                                   

American Copper Building

Photo courtesy of curbed.com

These two structures, located at 626 First Avenue in Murray Hill,  kind of look like two cartoon buildings shaking hands or even dancing. That’s because a three-level sky bridge connects the two. Those innovative boffins at SHoP Architects are responsible for designing the copper clad structures, which combined contain 761 units.

520 West 28th St by Zaha Hadid

Photo courtesy of StreetEasy

Shimmering, futuristic and with more curves than a sunny day at the Copacabana Beach, this is the first and only NYC project by the late celebrated architect Zaha Hadid. Located near the High Line in Manhattan, reported celebrity residents include Sting and Ariana Grande. The building contains 39 spacious units over 11 floors and was completed in 2016.

56 Leonard St

Photo courtesy of WSP

Leonard St as a whole has been garnering a lot of interest recently because of the number of luxury condos taking to the skies in pricey Tribeca. This glass, cantilevered beauty was completed in 2016 after being conceived almost a decade earlier. The penthouse is the most expensive condo south of midtown, selling for $47.87 million last year. The building has 145 units over a cloudbusting 60 floors.

Solar Curve, High Line

Image courtesy of Studio Gang

Still being constructed, this innovative piece of architecture by Chicago based architects, Studio Gang is known as the Solar Curve. It is prismatic in shape to take advantage of the sun’s moving position in the sky to heat the structure, while also benefited from the green space at the High Line.

400 Park Avenue South

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Designed by Frenchman Christian de Portzamparc, over a decade ago, this is a jagged punkrocker of a building, jutting defiantly into the Manhattan skyline slightly north of Madison Park. But there’s nothing to rebellious about the pricey condos here which are completely sold out.

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