It was dusk. The 31-foot sloop cut silently southward through the smooth Hudson River on New York City’s west side. Joe Barone sat at the wheel and let the breeze sift through his silver-flecked hair on this balmy August evening. The 50-year-old contractor was looking for his favorite site on Manhattan, a few blocks inland on 28th street overlooking the sparkling, wildflowered, elevated pathway of the world-famous High Line. He saw a rambling, curvaceous 30-story structure changing its facade every few minutes before his eyes, reproducing swooping multicolored patterns with pointillistic detail through the night.
It was the Hudson House senior living complex, a project that encapsulated all the latest trends in housing for an aging America. Joe had worked with architects, engineers, artists and electronic media geniuses in close collaboration not only creating the design, but precision-engineering the apartment modules and 3D printing on site the structural components holding them all together.