Developer (And Economy) Cuts Manhattan Gehry Tower in Half

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 does not have luck when it comes to NYC skyscrapers.

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By Jen Chung in News on March 20, 2009 10:27 AM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

Basically, Gehry sucks at towers. His designs for City Center in L.A. as well as the Atlantic yards and this project are just wavy Gehry panels stuck onto a crappy box. He needs to keep it on the down low.

Spirit of 76

This isn't unprecedented. 11 Madison Ave was originally supposed to be one of the tallest buildings in the world, taller even than the Empire State, but that got shortened during construction by another little economic downturn called the Great Depression.

NannyState

They did say that they'd "get back to that".

blablanyc

The WTC is doomed.

Kojak

Given the structural & engineering work put in to create a tower of that size, just to cut it in half seems to be a huge waste of resources.

But then again, who the hell is going to buy those apartments anytime soon anyway?

Maxwell

Actually the structural and engineering comes after the architectural design most of the time, and I'm sure for this case it is since it includes a Starchitect. And cutting the building in half would reduce the weight of the building and cooling loads. So, it's not really a waste of resources.

I'm sorry I had to do it, I work in the Architectural Engineering field.

valeriob

Wouldn't the cost of planning and creating a foundation to support 80 stories more costly than a foundation for 40?

I do not know much about this, but I just know it has to cost more (material, labor, vodka, etc)

Maxwell

The engineer's fee is probably already contracted for an 80 story building. They will probably have to pay more to renegotiate another fee to fix the building to a 40 story building. But I'm sure that the cost savings of ordering double the material would offset any fees.

Maxwell

well it depends when they decided to redesign the building. I didn't know it was under construction already. And yes, those caissons would be supporting an 80 story building, but now all the other steel work would be (I assume) redesigned to support a shorter building. The mechanical system would have to be sized smaller also.

Maxwell

well it depends when they decided to redesign the building. I didn't know it was under construction already. And yes, those caissons would be supporting an 80 story building, but now all the other steel work would be (I assume) redesigned to support a shorter building. The mechanical system would have to be sized smaller also.

valeriob

Yea tell me about it.

They drove piles into the ground for 4 months starting at 6:30am every morning.

There is nothing like waking up to a pneumatic piler shaking your building 50 feet from my window EVERY MORNING FOR 4 MONTHS...

(DONK...DONK... DONK...DONK...DONK...)

They'd better build as planned because I'm still bitter over lost sleep. ;)

Felix Hoenikker

Prescribe the tower one giant Viagra. Problem solved.

EricGewiz

If the idea was to have an iconic Gehry tower in Brooklyn, then why build one with a similar design (at least to the original "Miss Brooklyn" plan) in another borough?

Besides, having a Gehry towers is what makes it notable and potentially iconic, not it's height. His two most notable buildings are a few stories tall! (art museum and concert hall).