Trax Wang.
Trax Wang, 31
Associate at Fogarty Finger
Trax Wang discovered his love of urban architecture early on growing up in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, just across the river from Hong Kong.
He ended up studying architecture with an engineering minor at Zhejiang University before heading to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design to complete a master’s in architecture and urban design. After earning his degree in 2016, Wang stayed in Boston for a year to work at Perkins & Will, then moved to New York City for his current job at Fogarty Finger.
Now he’s working on a 1,100-unit, mixed-use project spread across multiple development sites in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The largest piece of it will rise at 300 Nevins Street, a 2.3-acre site on the Gowanus Canal. That building will be two towers with 654 rentals, along with 450 feet of public esplanade on the canal. Two other nearby sites, at 251 Douglass Street and 585 Union Street, will host 260 and 224 units, respectively. Charney Companies and Tavros Holdings are developing all three.
There was a mad rush to get initial permits for all three buildings before the 421a tax exemption expired in June, and the city hadn’t released the new flood zone rules yet.
“They wanted to design the building to meet a future design intent while making sure they can meet the 421a deadline,” Wang said of the developer. “Once it got pre-approved and the Gowanus flood zone text got finalized, we re-examined our buildings. The entire canal district — the foundation, the flood-proofing — there is a level of future proofing where we need to think ahead. The new flood text said two feet above flood elevation, but we elevated the esplanade to 14 feet, because we’re trying to be cautious about future proofing.”
Up in Queens, Wang just wrapped construction on a 534-unit project at 30-77 Vernon Boulevard along the East River in Astoria, another large project in the city’s flood zone.
Outside of work, Wang enjoys researching and discovering Brutalist architecture. He lives near the former Met Breuer building — now the temporary home of Frick Madison — on the Upper East Side, and notes that his office is by the former AT&T Long Lines Building at 33 Thomas Street.
“Envisioning a socialist lifestyle, that is very interesting to me,” said Wang. “Whenever I travel somewhere I hope there’s a Brutalist plaza or government buildings. I want to do a publication, or a collective, either in housing or Brutalism or both.”—R.B.R.
