American Can Company/CanCo Lofts
50 Dey Street

 

The re-adaptive use of the former American Can Company brick building into 500 condominium lofts has provided the Tonnelle Avenue area of Jersey City with a new residential living space. The project, completed in 2007, took a long time from the close of the factory in the 1970s. It is located nine blocks west of Journal Square and just north of the historic Marion section of Jersey City.

The renovation of the once familiar industrial site, seen from New Jersey's heavily trafficked Tonnelle Circle, was done by SBLM architects of Manhattan. The one-million-foot Art Deco industrial building was constructed as a series of five reinforced concrete buildings with five towers and smokestacks. The dramatic windows and skylights outline the otherwise stark industrial structures with designs of elongated diamonds along the roof line. American Can once employed over 3,000 workers in the manufacture of milk cartons, aerosol cans, glass bottles and reportedly the first beer can.

Today one enters the one-time industrial complex into a "destination" lobby designed by the architecture firm of LOT-EK of Manhattan. The lobby features "ceiling sculptures" and industrial piping with background illumination on one wall. Two dozen plasma television screens broadcast live scenes of the Manhattan skyline and local news. Giuseppe Legano of LOT-EK explains, "they can be used creatively to repeat the view of New York, so that it seems to be everywhere in the room, or splitting it into fragments so the screens make a whole 'painting' or to produce a panorama" (Quoted in Martin). The sales lobby has a hanging sculpture made of paint cans to reflect the historic use of the site. The 24-foot ceilings and concrete columns remain and are now integral to the layout of the apartments.

Reference:

Martin, Antoinette. "Both Untramodern and Dated." In the Region/New Jersey/New York Times 22 April 2007.