Scott System
Case Study
Architectural Concrete Formwork for 130 William, NYC
Project
Overview
130 William is Sir David Adjaye of Adjaye Associates‘s first high-rise residential tower in the United States. A 66-story luxury condominium rising nearly 800 feet above Lower Manhattan’s Financial District, the building is defined by its hand-cast concrete facade, monumental arched windows, and a ground-level public plaza designed as an urban living room for residents and the surrounding city alike.
Structuretech NY commissioned Scott System to fabricate the formwork elements central to the plaza’s defining features: massive foam arch void forms that create the project’s signature architectural openings, and a custom #177 random stone urethane formliner developed to embed natural stone texture directly into the surrounding concrete surfaces.
The Challenges
The scope demanded precision at a scale consistent with Sir Adjaye’s vision: architecture that is both seen and felt.
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The Vision
Sir Adjaye conceived 130 William as a deliberate counterpoint to the glass towers that dominate the Manhattan skyline. The design draws from the masonry heritage of Lower Manhattan, with concrete surfaces intended to evoke the porous, tactile quality of natural stone. The result is a building that rewards close engagement as much as it commands distant attention.
At the plaza level, that philosophy becomes experiential. The ground-level space was designed as a transitional environment — a public pocket park framing private life — surrounded by architectural arches and textured concrete that engage the senses at street scale. Sir Adjaye’s guiding principle for the project set the standard for every material decision. Scott System’s formwork had to deliver on that standard in built form.
Proposed Solution
Scott System fabricated two complementary elements to execute the plaza’s architectural vision:
- Foam Arch Void Forms: Scott System engineered and produced massive Foam Arch Void Forms to create the project’s signature architectural openings. The oversized arches frame the space and establish the building’s visual identity at street level, referencing the large-scale arched windows that define the tower’s full facade. Producing void forms at this scale, with the dimensional consistency required for architectural concrete, reflects Scott System’s CNC capability applied to a project with zero tolerance for drift.
- #177 Random Stone Urethane Formliner: Paired with the arch forms, Scott System developed a custom version of its #177 Random Stone pattern using a reversed configuration. This reversal embeds the stone texture directly into the concrete surface during casting, producing a tactile, stone-like relief without applied finishes.
The result is concrete that reads and feels like natural stone: rough in character, specific in detail, and fully integrated into the material itself. The urethane formliner was precision-crafted to meet Adjaye Associates’ specifications while supporting both structural performance and constructibility.
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Components for Success
- Precision at Scale: Scott System utilized CNC machining to produce massive Foam Arch Void Forms with the dimensional accuracy required for architectural concrete.
- Authentic Texture: The #177 Random Stone Formliner used a reversed pattern to embed natural texture directly into the concrete, aligning with the design’s material philosophy.
- Strategic Collaboration: Coordination with Structuretech NY ensured that complex formwork met high design standards while remaining practical for field construction.
- Synergetic Components: The void forms and liners worked in tandem to create a cohesive plaza environment defined by bold openings and tactile surfaces.
Products Used
Foam Arch Void Forms (large-scale, custom-engineered for architectural concrete openings)
#177 Random Stone Urethane Formliner (reversed pattern configuration for embedded stone texture)
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The Outcome
The plaza at 130 William stands as one of the more considered ground-level public spaces in recent Manhattan architecture: a sheltered, textured environment where the scale of the arches and the roughness of the concrete surfaces make the building feel present and immediate at street level. Scott System’s Foam Arch Void Forms and custom urethane formliner contributed directly to that experience. The architectural openings are bold in scale. The concrete surfaces carry the tactile quality Sir Adjaye’s design called for. Together, they translate a sensory-driven design vision into material reality.
For projects where the concrete surface is itself the architecture, Scott System’s ability to fabricate large-scale void forms and custom textured liners to exacting specifications offers a reliable path from design intent to finished construction.