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Designs for New York City's proposed Olympic Villages, for NYC's 2012 Olympic bid, were revealed yesterday. Mayor Bloomberg said, "Queens is where the world has come to see the future, and if we're lucky enough to host the 2012 Games, Queens will provide a spectacular home away from home for thousands of the world's greatest athletes." Athletes, coaches and officials will be housed in Queens, with the villages on the East River, and later on, the village would become residential housing for 18,000 NYC residents.
See the proposed designs here, or go to Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central, where you can view them over the next two weeks. Gothamist likes the twisted towers, pictured above, from (corrected) Henning Larsens Tegnestue. Dutch firm MRVDV also has a designed; we've loved their pig farm design. Other designers include Zaha Hadid, Thom Mayne (LA), and Smith-Miller & Hawkinson (NY).
And the Times' Herbert Muschamp is impressed and feels any city can "feel proud" of these designs.
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Am I alone in thinking an East River beach is a strange idea?
the twisty towers are actually by henning larsens tegnestue. the geometric towers were by mvrdv. im hoping for zaha or mayne to come thru. itd be nice to finally see their architectural designs come to nyc.
Give me a break -- does anybody truly believe that any of this will really turn into affordable housing (TRULY affordable housing) afterwards?
The prospect of the Olympics in NYC is a joke. How about spending money, time, and energy on projects that will legitamately be in the public interest? What a shock that would be, huh?
"legitimately" -- crap, should proof before posting
Thanks veritech.
What I want in my skyline is definitely giant salt and pepper shakers.
Maybe they'll grow on me. Especially if they have little holes on top.
I'm all for the Olympics in NYC. As one who spent much of his childhood in the result of the last major international event in NY (World's Fair), I can appreciate the benefits that could come from another development catalyst like the Olympics.
Growing up in Queens, I couldn't image what it would've been like without having Flushing Meadow Park to go to on the weekends with my parents and little brother and sis. Another renovation of the park, development of the waterfront and new athletic facilities would be fine by me.
yeah, looking at these glamor shots of the sexy hourglass towers (why hello there, frank gehry's "ginger" with out the "fred"), these are not about to become anything but luxury apartments post-olympics...
Hmm... muschamp says 1600, but the Daily News has it listed as 16,000 to 18,000. I'm guessing the 16-18k's right. Even if it becomes luxury housing, if 18,000 wealthy/hip manhattan/brooklynites feel like crossing the East River/Kosciuszko and spending some of that money in Queens, I still don't see it as a negative proposal. But that's just the opinion of a lifelong Queens resident.
Yes! More bendy buildings.
Excuse the rant, but it makes me v angry when I see these silly renderings. Hey Zaha- when you discover flooring materials (and furniture and people) which is see thru- then you can draw these silly drawings, until then why dont you draw a picture of what the building will actually look like. Instead you set the public up for a fall- when it turns out these buildings look like dented trash cans once built. 3D max and all these other programs have totally changed the arch. field and not always for the better.
The same critisism goes for any building that has "greenery" on it. Total BS- doesnt work, especially in a climate such as ours.
Pipe dreams all of em- just to get suckers to sign on, then the real (developer approved) designs will be built and everyone will say- "hey it didnt look like that in the drawing!"
max, while youre allowed your rant, its a pretty cynical way of looking at the proposals. they are just design proposals, and its better to hope that they do in fact turn out that way rather than just assuming theyll be bastardized the second it reaches the development phase.
and it should be known that they dont try and sell the ideas in a literal sense...that zahas tower is transparent. its conceptual, an idea. from my limited knowledge of architecture and structure, im pretty sure a tower would need more than floor plates to stand itself up. digital design can be abused...but it can alternatively open up design possibilities unimagined before. if all architects took your cynical approach to design, then they wouldnt even bother to design. they would just hand you a box.
Granted Veritech. And thank you for not ragging on my horrific use of grammar. The problem is that the concept is what sells it- and thus the letdown when you see the box. I am all for the Art side of architecture, but there is also a reality that must be addressed. So in short I wish that Zaha could draw/design a building that evokes transparency (which iswould be true art in my mind and a very tough job) instead of drawing a transparent building- which wil never happen. And this doesnt say that you have to be realistic or pragmatic with your designs, just dont try to fool people.
And trust me- the effort architects spend trying to not build boxes is great, but we dont pay for it, so it is always a fight(which we often lose). But hopefully we build nice boxes.
in zahas case tho, im personally inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt when it comes to her artistic license because i see her as much an artist as an architect. yes she did just render a series of floors with a transparent membrane, but i dont suppose people will take that at face value. its representative, and admittedly a bit glamorized too. but if its the starting point which could be realized into something as evocative (where the literal transparency becomes phenomenal), then im all for it.
and personally...im still all for morphosis.
me encantan las cosas que hacen m.v.r.d.v soy arquitecto!!, y vivo en Rosario Argentina y me encantaria que me manden algunos de sus proyectos a mi casilla de correo, desde ya muchas gracias!!!....nicolas!
There seems to be a lot of pessimism in the previous comments. I believe the proposal for the Olympic village has good intentions to bring growth to Queens/NYC development. Architecture is an art form and naturally everyone is entitled to their opinion. The other posted comments reminded me of reading about the extreme amount of negativity in Paris while the Eiffel Tower was being purposed and built. Today it is a global landmark. Who knows what will happen?
There seems to be a lot of pessimism in the previous comments. I believe the proposal for the Olympic village has good intentions to bring growth to Queens/NYC development. Architecture is an art form and naturally everyone is entitled to their opinion. The other posted comments reminded me of reading about the extreme amount of negativity in Paris while the Eiffel Tower was being purposed and built. Today it is a global landmark. Who knows what will happen?
There seems to be a lot of pessimism in the previous comments. I believe the proposal for the Olympic village has good intentions to bring growth to Queens/NYC development. Architecture is an art form and naturally everyone is entitled to their opinion. The other posted comments reminded me of reading about the extreme amount of negativity in Paris while the Eiffel Tower was being purposed and built. Today it is a global landmark. Who knows what will happen?