Results tagged “skyscraper”

      

Yesterday, developer Bruce Ratner and architect Frank Gehry celebrated the "topping off" of the 76-story Beekman Tower in lower Manhattan. A 10-pound bucket of concrete was lifted 900 feet onto the roof of the 1.1 million square foot skyscraper, which will have rental apartments, a pre-K through 8th grade public school, an ambulatory care center for NY Downtown Hospital, retail space, and public plazas.

Though the real estate boom is over in Williamsburg, it's apparently still roaring in Greenpoint. A first time developer and former attorney to Donald Trump revealed his plan this week to construct a 47-story high rise on the waterfront that would tower over nearby North Brooklyn skyscrapers like the Edge and Northside Piers by 17 floors.

That empty lot next to MoMA on West 53rd Street isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing (unless there are prefab houses in it!), but would an 85 story tower be any better? Many fear that could be a reality, and are battling against the proposed development.

After reports of construction being stopped at the Financial District site of a Frank Gehry-designed skyscraper and that developer Forest City Ratner was cutting the tower's height from 76 floors to "just" 38, now Crain's has some more details on what's happening with the Spruce Street building. The developer's spokesperson said, “Given the current economy, we are conducting a study to assess costs, risks and overall timing. Work is continuing on the building including on the school"—the building has a 100,000 square-foot pre-K through 8th grade school—"and we should have some conclusive answers shortly" (as in whether to add the additional floors). The building is also supposed to include a hospital and parking garage. Crain's adds, "The building was to have roughly 900 apartments with stunning views of lower Manhattan and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge and was expected to open next year." Boy, Frank Gehry when it comes to NYC skyscrapers.

Yesterday the Port Authority unveiled designs from three architects competing to build a 1.3 million-square-foot skyscraper atop the dreary west side bus terminal's north wing. Officials say they’ll choose a winning design in the next couple months, and construction on the office tower could start next year, or maybe 2010; but what's the rush? Demand for office space in New York City isn’t exactly critical.

Nicolai Ouroussoff, the architecture critic for the NY Times, enjoys working in his employer's new headquarters, he writes today, but the building designed by Renzo Piano falls short of the best skyscrapers in the city. For one, it allegedly harbors a streak of nostalgia, which in the world of architectural discourse amounts to an aesthetic identity crisis. The nostalgia in question is a longing not for neo-Gothic frills and cornices, but for the 1950s era...