Colonnade Park Apartments

The Colonnade Park Apartments is an International Style skyscraper designed by Mies van der Rohe, and built between 1958 and 1960 in Newark, NJ.

Its precise street address is 108-136 Martin Luther King Junior Blvd, Newark, NJ. You can also find it on the map here.

The Colonnade Park Apartments, together with The Pavilion Buildings, were conceived by Mies as "a city within a city" and played a significant role in the development and urban planning of Newark during the 20th century. Architecturally, they are noteworthy as an example of modularity, the use of modern materials, and the simplification of on-site assembly — a concept developed by Mies in the Seagram Building.

Mies van der Rohe was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design. But there was also one other architect involved, as far as we know. We are talking about Joseph Fujikawa.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was Herbert Greenwald as the Main Developer.

The Colonnade Park Apartments can be categorized as an International Style building.

The Colonnade Park Apartments was completed in 1960. By 1960 the International Style movement had already left its early days behind and could be considered a mature movement, which does not mean it was loved and accepted by everyone, on the contrary. The International Style was accepted by the architecture community way before it was by the general public, and it is therefore likely that the Colonnade Park Apartments was not well received by everyone at the time.

The Colonnade Park Apartments uses a frame structure made of concrete columns and beams.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features an aluminum and reflective glass curtain wall. The glass panels do not open, but have a small ventilation grille on the lower part.

I-beams, doubling as mullions, extend a couple of centimeters beyond the building envelope.