Community helps create Soho Mews.

Although Soho is hardly the mecca for artists it once was, when brothers Albert Jason and Jody and Jody Laboz, owners of United American Land LLC, a real estate development company, finally purchased a large vacant lot at 311 West Broadway, they worked hard to design a luxury development firmly rooted in the art world.

That decision was part of a commitment they had made to their neighbors. United American LLC has been based in Soho for the past 12 years, and the brothers were careful to draw upon feedback they received through three years of community meetings to design their first luxury property, Soho Mews. Neighbors suggested art should be a component of any new property that goes up in Soho. The concept made sense to the brothers.

"Everywhere you look developers are putting up these glass buildings, and that's great, the buildings are beautiful, they are gorgeous. The sad fact is very few of them really fit in the neighborhoods where they are built. We didn't want to do that. We didn't want to impose our design on the community. Instead we worked very hard to get the input of the community. They helped us shape the kind of building they wanted to see in their neighborhood," Albert Laboz said.

In addition to the meetings required through the public review process for the New York Landmarks Commission, the brothers had several meetings with community boards and neighborhood groups like the Soho Alliance throughout the design process.

The resulting creation was an enclave designed of two independent residential buildings, one facing West Broadway and the other facing Wooster Street, linked by a private garden designed by landscape designer Peter Walker containing 59 units ranging from $2.1 million to $11 million.

Art was infused in the process from the onset of construction, with public art hanging from the fences and barriers. As the building is created artwork will be more visible. UAL donated a first floor gallery space to the Art Production Fund, a non profit organization, which will serve as consultants to the buildings luxury tenants and commission public artwork to be placed in shared spaces throughout the building.

The development will also conform to community standards architecturally. Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, buildings contemporary skin will be created out of metal panels and recessed glass; and bear a strong resemblance to the cast iron districts original buildings of metal with large segments of gritted glass. To break up the buildings footprint, architects have divided the building into three separate sections. The building will only have one penthouse with a single setback. There will be underground parking for residents.

For Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, who had previously undergone a ten year public negotiation process when designing an addition to Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum, the publics receptivity to Soho Mews was a refreshing change." On some projects you have the owner wants to build and the community might not approve. Here the community was involved from the get go. They helped craft the zoning of the neighborhood, and when we came along they were able to take that zoning to the next level. We came along and interpreted that zoning with the community as our critics," said Robert Siegel. "They were able to work with us to help us to produce an architecturally sensitive project that meets all of our needs. We were able to engage into something closely resembling a collaboration. That was an immensely rewarding process for us."