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Renderings by Cook + Fox
Today's not a good day for Bank of America. In the Wall Street Journal, there was a report saying CEO Ken Lewis told investors that BoA will "shrink the company's 6,100-branch network by about 10%, a pullback from the two-decade expansion that took the bank from coast to coast. The driving force for the closings is changing customer preferences...as online and mobile banking take transactions away from traditional branches," according to sources.
Now there's a review of BoA's glittering new green building at One Bryant Park (yes, the site where glass kept falling off). Bloomberg News' architecture critic James Russelldissects the Cook & Fox-designed structure, "After the 64 percent slump in the bank’s shares since September, this glinting bundle of shards, nearing completion across from Bryant Park, could be considered a monument to bonus-coddled, overindulgent, corporate excess -- if it weren’t so dumpy. Worse, it’s gracelessly, earnestly green...The 54-story result is among the most ungainly forms on the skyline, like a matron who swathes herself in thick layers of fabric in a vain attempt to slim her burgeoning silhouette. The tower climaxes with a spire as impressive as an auto antenna." More photos here.
One Bryant Park is also where restaurant Aureole has relocated.
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I disagree...I think it's a beautiful building.
That said it is a metaphor for the "house of glass" that is bank of america.
lol.
Agreed. Wtf is this guy expecting? The Burj Dubai?
Its a damn sight better than the old Verizon Building, which they transformed into a massive green brick.
It's ugly, but it matches well because most of the architecture around there is also ugly. Personally I call it the 6th Avenue Death Spire, since death is what I fear whenever I walk underneath it.
...
Owwww, but I tend to agree. IMO, The shape is not inspiring and reminds me of a futuristic building out of an old Sci-Fi (SyFy?) movie...
And what do architectual critics really do anyway? What a stupid job.
C'mon, it's funny he compared it to an "ungainly matron."
Some guys like girls with a little more cushin' ok?
;D
I think it's the nicest large building constructed in recent years. The setting is just kind of odd, shoehorned in among other large buildings. It would look better if it had more open space around it.
Great, put it in Nebraska.
Did they fix that falling glass problem? Maybe it was symbolic of the company trying to shed some parts and become svelte.
I think it's pretty cool looking. The jaggedness could be a nice theme for architecture going forward.
Please tell me this was sarcasm - otherwise you are horribly behind the times, architecturally speaking.
When I grow up, I want to be a critic so I can be a snarky prick.
But instead you leave inane comments on a blog.
I showed a picture of the building to my mother and she said it looked just fine, except it had too much glass.
So the architecture critic hates BoA like everyone else in this country, but uses that populist rage to hate on the building? What a real professional.
I have to agree with #4 matty in wondering if the NYTimes can't save a few bucks by getting rid of what seems like a useless position. I don't need an architecture critic to remind me that the Bird's Nest in Beijing is awesome and that glass and steel towers in NYC are getting old.
That said, I can see the top 25% of the BoA building from my desk on 16th Street, and it does not look ugly or out of place. I also caught the Discovery Channel special on this a few months ago, in which it claims that it's even more energy efficient than the sweet Hearst building farther north and west (can anyone verify?). If that's the case, aren't these traits in a building that we're supposed to be commending rather than whining about?
I also have a view of the NYTimes building, which looks a lot weirder than the BoA building, but again it's modern and energy efficient, so I don't really give a crap what it looks like.
Don't see what the big deal is about?
50 years from now, the buildings are gonna be huge and ugly with interactive billboards posted on 'em.
Well, at least from what I've seen on sci-fi movies.
I've always felt Tyrell Corporation had a really ugly building.
i like it - it's like we finally got a Hugh Ferris building, and a really shiny one at that.
those renderings are a little disingenuous. it looks a lot fatter in real life.
but it looks much better than the dumpy single story buildings that occupied it before.
Very good point. Except I never saw a single story building evoke a soaring sensation, dumpy looking or not. What architectural school did you say you went to?
It's a disappointing piece of crap that we've had how long to digest? I'm over this discussion.
Wait a minute here. Wasn't that building suppose to be one of the new ones down at the old World Trade Center site? How did it end up in mid-town?
And in other news: Bloomberg has an architecture critic.
I don't think architecture critics actually allow themselves to ever like anything; every piece I've ever read by one seems to slam every new building ever. I think this one looks pretty cool, personally.
How come the artist's rendition always looks so much better than the reality?