U.N. Addition to Be Designed By Fumihiko Maki

The United Nations has chosen Pritzker Prize-winning Fumihiko Maki to design another building, which will be on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets. According to the Times, "glassy, white and sheer but elegant" design is projected to cost $330 million and to be finished by 2008. Since the older Secretariat building (picture, left) needs to be renovated, Maki's building will house the General Assembly, the Secretariat and their staffs until the Secretariat is ready; then U.N. offices in other parts of the city will move into the Maki building. Only Pritzker Prize winning architects were allowed to competer; Richard Meier dropped out because he didn't think the site would work, given physical issues of size, security, traffic, etc.

Maki's buildings, like the Fujisawa Municipal Gym in Fujisawa, Japan (picture, right), are considered to be in the International Style modernism, much like the U.N. Headquarters by Wallace K. Harrison. Another example of International Style modernism: The Lever House.