A building that resembles what it stores: salt for New York City's roads

New York

IMAGINE a coarse chunk of gray salt 21 metres high.

The US$20 million Spring Street Salt Shed, nearing completion on the Manhattan waterfront, has drawn curious stares from drivers along West Street and from pedestrians and cyclists in Hudson River Park. Folded, creased, dimpled and chamfered, its windowless, enigmatic facade is like a monumental work of origami.

But once you know what it is - a concrete shed where 5,000 tonnes of de-icing salt for the roads of lower Manhattan will be stored this winter - you'll have a hard time getting the image of a giant salt grain out of your mind.

"In some ways, it's the simplest building I've ever designed and in some wa…