Photography Courtesy Ewout Huibers
The Gold Coast of Long Island is a bastion of the old money-new money dichotomy, still looming over the Sound and immortalized in the pages of The Great Gatsby. A series of cities along the New Jersey coast are hoping to emulate this inviolable energy, transplanting the name and the sense of luxury but introducing their own touches of opulence. Three buildings along this stretch have taken such an approach by infusing their shared spaces with works of art that not only elevate their distinctive divinity, but define it.One such curated condominium,
Avora, sits on the Weehawken waterfront. Sleek boutique interiors by studio Lauren Jayne Design called for an equal in art, so developer Landsea Homes collaborated with Hoboken’s Barsky Gallery to erect a permanent installation featuring the work of up-and-comer Hanna Margetson-Rushmore. The complex geometry of Avora’s architecture is held in conversation with Margetson-Rushmore’s twisting metals and neutral canvases. Offsetting the modernity at center stage are land and waterscapes by French photographer Fabrice Silly, which engage with the Hudson River view just outside.Down the coast in Jersey City’s Newport neighborhood (another name harkening back to old-money splendor) sits the
Ellipse rental tower. A mural in the lobby sets the explicit intention of marking a grand arrival; literally alive, the scene of a sailor crossing the Hudson River to Newport from Manhattan is crafted entirely from a living green wall. As the plants grow in tandem with the neighborhood, the mural will only grow increasingly vibrant.Nearby lies the
Jersey City Urby, New Jersey’s tallest residential building. Striking enough on its own, with its cantilevered design, developers have incorporated the work of Belgian street artist
Steve Locatelli in their parking garage. Fitting for the concrete setting, Locatelli has thus far installed two murals—his signature skull in red and purple on one wall, and a woman with flowing hair in several hues on another. Each of these buildings has intertwined art not just as decoration, but as essential and intricate pillars of their foundations.
