While there’s no official word yet on whether or not there has been any “K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” it seems like some pouty lips are being puckered by both parties on the matter of Vornado’s ongoing renovations of 510 Fifth Avenue, the former Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust building. Read More
David Childs, the design leader at SOM for three decades now—his first smash was the postmodern Worldwide Plaza in Midtown, his latest the union-busting 7 World Trade Center—has come under plenty of criticism over the years for his design of 1 World Trade Center. Not only did people find it to be a dumbed-down version of Daniel Libeskind’s heavenly spire, but its signature feature, those chamfered corners, were nothing new either.
Numerous predecessors were pointed out, including one official entry by two students to the master planning competition. Now, a China-based reader sends along another from his side of the world, and it looks like almost an exact replica, down to the circular array surrounding the antenna. Read More
Whether poetic, patriotic or pathetic, Daniel Liebeskind’s plan to render the height of 1 World Trade Center at 1,776 feet—a nod to our nation’s declaration of independence—was one of the most remarked upon pieces of his plan for the project. In fact, after Skidmore Owings & Merrill took over the design from Mr. Liebeskind, who is now merely the master planner, about the only element of his design that remained at 1 World Trade was that the top of the tower would reach 1,362, the same as the original towers, and it would have a spire climbing further to that symbolic height of 1,776 feet.
It turns out the tower will be even taller, and we have Mother Nature to thank for that. Read More
One World Trade Center can’t catch a break. Well, maybe some broken glass.
Just as the building has really gotten moving over the past year, ahead of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this fall, The Times is reporting that plans for a prismatic base to the building was quietly cast aside in March. The Read More
Architects’ prospects are no longer crumbling in the city! Only a year or two ago, they were the most unemployed profession in the country, but after a better 2010 for many New York City firms, things continue to look, uh, up. It is a good sign for the wider real estate and construction community, as Read More
Over the past decade, no one has built more “green” buildings than the city’s School Construction Authority. Even before Local Law 86 required all civic buildings to be built to sustainability standards, the department had been using such measures–light sensors, efficient heating and cooling systems, recycled materials, etc.–to build healthier instiutions that also save money Read More
What is a landmark?
Determining that is the job of the city commission bearing that name, and yesterday it decreed that 510 Fifth Avenue, built in 1954 as a five-story marquee bank branch for Manufacturers Trust (later Manufacturers of Hanover, later Chase Manhattan), was so worthy of preservation that not only should its exterior be Read More
Chalk another one up for Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
Just a week after the firm unveiled its new designs for the Broad Foundation in LA, Columbia has just announced that the university has selected DS+R to design two new buildings at its new 17-acre Manhattanville campus. Both buildings will be an outpost of the Read More
