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Project Showcase: Custom Brick of Manhattan鈥檚 The Village West, Greenwich Village, Manhattan

 

At the corner of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue, a century of Greenwich Village architecture meets The Village West, a new, 13-story residential development. On a cleared corner parcel with no historic shell to preserve and no old structure to restore, the structure鈥檚 rounded corners, deep-set windows, and richly textured brick feel as if they鈥檇 always belonged there.

The bridge between past and present is The Belden Brick Company, the leader among custom brick manufacturers. A custom blend brick and special shapes speak the visual language of a denser, older streetscape.

From Sidewalk to Skyline, The Village West鈥檚 Identity Is Defined by Custom-Made Bricks

Like the 19th-century buildings surrounding it, The Village West, designed by New York City鈥檚 , follows a classical base-middle-top composition. Above its terra-cotta storefront system at street level, brick carries the building鈥檚 identity.



Belden Brick鈥檚 custom-made brick spans the tower鈥檚 full middle and upper stories. In covering the exterior鈥檚 largest surface area by far, brick gives the building its identity鈥攚hether viewed from the sidewalk or skyline. Where a narrow band of terra-cotta announces the entrance underfoot, the brick facade is what passersby live with. It鈥檚 the material that provides the building鈥檚 weight and texture from every angle above eye level.

Curved Bricks, Cast Shadow: Special Shapes Create Depth

Depth was the design team's central goal. David Kubik, BKSK partner, says much of what makes comes down to cast shadow. Achieving that on a new building meant treating brick as a shaping material, not just a cladding one. Recessed and projected brickwork climbs the tower's cylindrical volumes in patterns that, at a smaller scale, echo the same details established at street level.



Belden Brick鈥檚 carry that logic all the way to the window openings: unique headers crown each of the building鈥檚 rounded windows, built with a full eight-inch brick return into the brick facade wall鈥攁 small, high-visibility detail that mirrors the same depth-and-shadow ambition driving the rest of the design.

CUSTOM BRICK MOLDS MEET EXACT TOLERANCES

Executing that ambition took more than custom brick molds; it took precision. BKSK committed early to a two-inch airspace behind the brick specifically to accommodate the facade鈥檚 undulations, a decision that shaped how brick dimensions and mortar joints needed to be calculated well before installation began. With Boston Valley Terra Cotta鈥檚 horizontal bands set at fixed points between floors, brick coursing had almost no room for drift. Belden鈥檚 custom-made bricks had to meet exact dimensional tolerances so that materials from two different manufacturers, installed by different trades, would align correctly.



Completed in spring 2026, The Village West is precision brickwork not just as an aesthetic choice, but as a construction requirement. This from-the-ground-up building on a cleared Greenwich Village corner earns its place beside Manhattan鈥檚 storied Chelsea and West Village architecture history that surrounds it.

Owner/Developer: IGI-USA (The U.S. division of Izaki Group Investments)
Architect & Interior Design: BKSK Architects
General Contractor: Hunter Roberts Construction Group
Brick Distributor: Belden Tri-State Building Materials
Photography: Michael Young, Field Condition

@beldenbrickco #beldenbrickco #brick #moldedbrick #buildwithbrick #belden

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