215 WEST 57TH STREET BY ADRIAN SMITH + GORDON GILL ARCHITECTURE

Extell Development announced late last year that the project, disegned by AdrianSmith + Gordon Gill Architecture which is located at 215 West 57th Street in New York City, would reach a height of 1,550 feet.

The 88-story tower at 215 West 57th Street will be one of New York City’s tallest buildings, 100 feet taller than the Empire State Building, making it the second-tallest building in New York City behind SOM’s One World Trade Center.

Adrian Smith is no stranger to designing soaring skyscrapers—he designed Dubai’s Burj Khalifa while working at SOM, still the tallest tower in the world.

Extell is also developing another West 57th tower, One57, this one designed by Christian De Portzamparc, which before the announcement of 215 was to be the city’s tallest residential tower at 1,004 feet.

Manhattan’s 57th Street is quickly becoming the city’s newest Gold Coast, with half a dozen exclusive residential skyscrapers planned along its stretch.

EMPIRE STORES IN NEW YORK CITY BY STUDIO V

Brooklyn Bridge Park awarded the development and re-design of the historic Empire Stores to Midtown Equities, a leading real estate investment and development firm led by Brooklyn native and Chairman Joe Cayre and his two sons Jack and Michael.

Midtown Equities selected STUDIO V Architecture, led by Jay Valgora, to create the architectural design for the adaptive re-use and addition to seven Civil War era buildings. Located immediately adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge overlooking Brooklyn Bridge Park, these magnificent historic structures have remained empty for over a half-century. The Empire Stores are among the last remnants of the “walled city” of Brooklyn, whose warehouses historically separated the surrounding community from the original working waterfront.

The design includes a Brooklyn marketplace featuring local food and restaurants, a cultural museum dedicated to Brooklyn, offices for digital startups and creative firms, and a public rooftop park overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge Park and Manhattan skyline. “We are thrilled to be working with the Cayre family on this historic project. Along with the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire Stores are the most iconic structures on the Brooklyn waterfront,” stated Jay Valgora, the principal and founder of STUDIO V.

“Our design combines historic rehabilitation with contemporary forms and materials to create an innovative new architecture for the waterfront. While carefully restoring these magnificent masonry structures, the new glass courtyard and rooftop park will bring light and air into the buildings and reconnect the neighborhood to the waterfront and its beautiful new park. STUDIO V’s design features an angled glass courtyard and arcade that passes through the existing masonry structures. This public courtyard extends up through the buildings, wrapping around historic stone schist walls to culminate in a rooftop public park.

A delicate glass addition with gardens and terraces will rise over the historic buildings, with a green roof that is visible from the surrounding bridges. The Empire Stores are listed on the National Historic Register, and all facades, interiors, and architectural treatments will follow the strict standards for historic rehabilitation required by the National Park Service. The project has committed to achieving a rating of LEED Silver or higher for sustainable architecture. The transformation of the Empire Stores will be one of many New York City waterfront projects designed by STUDIO V.

In seven years, the Studio V has emerged as one of the foremost architectural and master planning firms engaged in waterfront design and resiliency, with projects across New York and cities around the world. In addition to their architectural projects, STUDIO V is working pro bono with the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance to help create design guidelines that illustrate best practices for waterfront design. “Working to improve, strengthen, and promote public access, resiliency and restoration to New York City’s waterfronts is essential to the future of New York,” says Roland Lewis, CEO and President of MWA.

“We are excited to have Jay and the STUDIO V team working with us in our efforts. In addition to innovative waterfront edge design, the Empire Stores transformation will give back to its DUMBO neighborhood economically and socially. “Coming from a family that was born and raised in Brooklyn, we look forward to creating a successful development that serves the community of DUMBO,” says Joe Cayre, Chairman of Midtown Equities. “We selected STUDIO V for their talent in creating innovative and sensitive architectural designs that will transform the Empire Stores into a destination, and a cultural resource for both the neighborhood and New York City.

WEST 28TH STREET BY ZAHA HADID

Related Companies has commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects to design an 11-storey residential condominium adjacent to the High Line at 520 West 28th Street in Chelsea, New York City.

The project marks Hadid’s first commission in the city and continues Related’s long history of partnering with world-class architects and designers. 520 West 28th Street’s design captures the richness of its vibrant and historic urban context. A fascinating interplay between the city and the High Line has created a powerful urban dynamic among the elevated park and surrounding streetscape.

This same dynamic is evident within the design; an interconnected chevron separates and merges the building’s two distinct zones, further establishing this contextual relationship and giving each residence the highest degree of originality. 

The 11-storey development will feature approximately 37 residences of up to 5,500 square feet with 11-foot ceilings, technological integration and tailored interiors. Designed with multiple elevator cores, a majority of the residences will have a private vestibule and entrance that adds to the intimacy of the building. 

The double-height entrance lobby offers glimpses beyond to the residents’ communal spaces and outdoor garden. Large terraces, courtyard, indoor pool and spa, entertainment space and playrooms give additional opportunities to relax and entertain.

Book: 10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan

Today the Classicist Blog announces a new book: The Municipal Art Society of New York: 10 (Ten) Architectural Walks in Manhattan. That seem very good to this architecture tourist. Every town deserves a tour book. New York deserves 10x10 of them.

The Classicist Blog introduced me to the © 2009 The Municipal Art Society of New York, my newest hero. You see, the Society is about the "art" of cities rather than fine art.

You can purchase it from Urban Center Books.

Here are the tours feature in the book.

1. Old City, New City: Downtown Preservation and Planning
2. Before the Code: Downtown Skyscrapers
3. Along the High Line
4. Of Farragut and Flatiron
5. Midtown Deco
6. Grand Central City
7. When It Was New: Park Avenue
8. Midtown since Modernism: East 57th Street to Columbus Circle
9. Country in the City: Central Park
10. Harlem Haven: Hamilton Heights

CORPORATE CO-LOCATION BUILDING BY WEISS/MANFREDI

The WEISS/MANFREDI designed Corporate Co-Location Building for the new campus is a major advancement to the university's effort to bring technology, industry, and academia together in New York City.

The CornellNYC TechCorporate Co-Location Building is a major advancement in the university's effort to bring industry and academia together on its groundbreaking Roosevelt Island campus.

This seven story contemporary "R and D" hub is a flexible incubator designed to accelerate the pace of innovation at Cornell NYC Tech. The loft-like design of the building fosters dialogue between Cornell's disciplinary hubs and tech companies of all sizes, providing shared spaces for entrepreneurial activities and academic inquiry.

The building's crystalline geometries frame river to river views and bring daylight into all the spaces of the building. At the campus level, Tech Gallery, the building's central atrium, opens to the central campus green and is linked to the campus grounds with a series of landscaped terraces.

The gallery and atrium open to views across the campus and create a three dimensional crossroads that encourages spontaneous conversations and collaboration throughout the building.

The cantilevered southwest and northeast wings shelter outdoor social spaces that animate the ground floor retail spaces and entry terrace. The silhouette of the rooftop photovoltaic canopy unifies the campus' architectural expression and is an iconic signature of Cornell's commitment to sustainability.

As an important element of Cornell's new graduate campus, the Co-Location Building is a crystalline incubator, recasting prior academic and corporate models to establish a catalytic setting for research and innovation.

"We hope to create visual and physical connections between academic and profession hubs to foster an ecosystem of innovation." Marion Weissand Michael Manfredi.

KINGSBRIDGE NATIONAL ICE CENTER

The New York CityCouncil approved plans for the Kingsbridge National Ice Center (KNIC), designed by an architectural team that includes Murray Beynon of BBB Architects and Stadium Consultants International (SCI), to occupy the Kingsbridge Armory space in the Bronx.

The colossal Kingsbridge Armory, a turreted fortress that has sat vacant since 1996, will be transformed into the world's largest indoor ice center. The Kingsbridge National Ice Center will host nine year-round ice rinks, including 763,000-square-foot facility will house nine ice rinks, a 5,000-seat arena, plus 50,000-square-feet of community space.

The first phase of the development involves the construction of five ice rinks and the community space, will be complete and operational by September 2018. The second phase will take an additional year.

“The developer, KNIC Partners, LLC, founded by Kevin Parker, has privately invested $275 million into the project.  It should created 260 permanent jobs and 890 construction jobs. All nine rinks will be indoor regulation size, and useable for national and international hockey tournaments, figure and speed skating competitions, and ice shows.

Five rinks will be on the main floor, and four will be on two elevated platforms 40 feet above the main level. At least two of the rinks will be usable for sled-hockey for people with disabilities. The center more than doubles the number of indoor ice rinks in NYC; there are only seven and none are located in the Bronx.

In addition to the rinks, there will be dressing rooms, lockers, retail space for sports goods, parking for 480 cars, and a wellness center with off-ice training fitness, rehabilitation, sports therapy programs. One of the community programs will be run by a KNIC foundation that will host free after-school hockey and skating, as well as academic tutoring.” Curbed

THE LIVING WINS YOUNG ARCHITECTS PROGRAM 2014

The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 announce The Living (David Benjamin) as the winner the 15th edition of Young Architects Program (YAP) in New York.

The winning project, Hy-Fi, opens at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City in late June. Using biological technologies combined with cutting-edge computation and engineering to create new building materials, The Living will use a new method of bio-design, resulting in a structure that is 100% organic material.

The structure temporarily diverts the natural carbon cycle to produce a building that grows out of nothing but earth and returns to nothing but earth—with almost no waste, no energy needs, and no carbon emissions. This approach offers a new vision for society’s approach to physical objects and the built environment.

It also offers a new definition of local materials, and a direct relationship to New York state agriculture and innovation culture, New York City artists and non-profits, and Queens community gardens. Hy-Fi is a circular tower of organic and reflective bricks, which were designed to combine the unique properties of two new materials.

The organic bricks are produced through an innovative combination of corn stalks (that otherwise have no value) and specially-developed living root structures, a process that was invented by Ecovative, an innovative company that The Living is collaborating with. The reflective bricks are produced through the custom-forming of a new daylighting mirror film invented by 3M. The reflective bricks are used as growing trays for the organic bricks, and then they are incorporated into the final construction before being shipped back to 3M for use in further research.

The organic bricks are arranged at the bottom of the structure and the reflective bricks are arranged at the top to bounce light down on the towers and the ground. The structure inverts the logic of load-bearing brick construction and creates a gravity-defying effect—instead of being thick and dense at the bottom, it is thin and porous at the bottom. The structure is calibrated to create a cool micro-climate in the summer by drawing in cool air at the bottom and pushing out hot air at the top.

The structure creates mesmerizing light effects on its interior walls through reflected caustic patterns. Hy-Fi offers a familiar—yet completely new—structure in the context of the glass towers of the New York City skyline and the brick construction of the MoMA PS1 building. And overall, the structure offers shade, color, light, views, and a future-oriented experience that is designed to be refreshing, thought-provoking, and full of wonder and optimism.

HUDSON YARDS PROJECT BREAKS GROUND

At the groundbreaking ceremony, which took place at the rail yards on Manhattan’sWest Side, were present the architects Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF).

Among those in attendance were real estate brokers, and city officials, as well as Stephen M. Ross, the chairman of the Related Companies, which is developing the $15 billion, 26-acre project along with Oxford Properties Group.

Oxford and Related have agreed to pay the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) $1 billion to lease the site, which unfurls from West 30th to 33rd Streets, Tenth to Twelfth Avenues, for 99 years.

“Today, we formally start the most ambitious construction project in the history of New York,” said Ross. The first building to rise at the site will be a 1,300-foot, 46-story office tower designed by KPF, which also created the master plan.

Coach, the luxury apparel company, will purchase 740,000 square feet of the tower. The tower, which will overhang a portion of the High Line, is expected to open in 2015 and aiming for LEED Platinum certification.

The project involves the construction oftwo angled office towers, to north “30 Hudson Yards” and south “10 Hudson Yards”, rise dramatically above a glass enclosed seven-story retail podium.

Encompassing nearly 5.5 million square feet, this mixed use complex bound by 10th Avenue, 33rd Street, Hudson Boulevard and 30th Street will be the largest commercial building in New York City.

Meanwhile, the project’s entire first phase, which will take up half of the site and be built mostly atop a platform over the rail yards, is set to be completed in 2017.