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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.
The three designs are all for a tower that will stand between 40-50 stories tall. The proposal submitted by Manhattan firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects, seen above on the left, would sheath 48 floors behind sleek, mirrored glass. The middle rendering is by Cesar Pelli, who designed the World Financial Center; his 47-story building would feature glass walls in a wave pattern and a rooftop garden. On the right is Richard Rogers’s design, which would stack four boxes on top of each other with diagonal trusswork echoing the ugly main terminal below.
Speaking of the bus terminal, the Port Authority – which is leasing the air rights for $344.5 million to developer Vornado-Ruben for 99 years – has promised to build 18 new bus gates and make upgrades that would allow 70 more buses an hour to roll in and out during peak commuting times. Also, there will be more retail and new elevators! And while they’re at it, maybe they’ll do a better job maintaining George Rhoads’s notoriously malfunctioning kinetic ball sculpture?
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i think a more important project would be to improve the directional signage within the Port Authority bus terminal. And also get rid of the riff raff.
First one's not bad, second one is hard to tell - I think I like the interior building but not the wavy glass so much. Third one is just deranged.
Whatever they choose, you're just not going to beat the Westin for "area's ugliest building." God knows, the New York Times people tried.
I'll be dead before the PA get their act together and actually build those office towers, not that I am looking forward for them to build these towers.
the third one is the only one that's somewhat interesting, the others can be found with minor detail changes all over the city... just your standard glass boxes.
I like the Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners model, very Space 1999.
Hopefully it will be modular so they can swap out office blocks with future tech upgrades.
Who wants to work in a building in the airspace directly above an incredibly busy bus terminal?
Also, I could climb that one on the right there.
Haven't designers learned their lesson from the NYT building that people will climb ANYTHING?? The fact that they're considering having two climbable buildings right across the street from one another is just hilarious.
whichever design they choose, they better make sure they have a damn good ventilation system.
PA...MTA. Both full of shit organizations that couldn't paint a one bedroom apartment on time given a four million dollar budget.
So, this will start work when? 2020? 2025?
I doubt these buildings will be climbed. Not easily at least. The third design may be inviting, but the trusses start pretty high. You'd need a ladder, which would be fairly suspicious to security.
Wow ugly.
well, next to the PA any building can look less ugly and more modern.
I'm guessing we lose the awesome, cheap bowling alley upstairs. :(
Maybe we can lose that cheap crappy filthy bus station below.
Really, this building, whichever design gets picked, stands a far better chance of being built and fully leased than those hopeless monstrosities down south. Midtown will always be hot while The Financial District gets deeper and deeper in doubt. The middle design by Caesar Pelli is better than the dull,icy box by KPF to the far left, or that ridiculous 1977 World's Fair Indonesia Pavilion by Richard Rodgers (who has all the aesthetic 'je ne sais quoi' of a fuck).