MoMA Tower Loses Height

The empty lot next to Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street will be a filled with a building one day, that's just a fact. How high will that building be? That's more debatable. After much noise was made about the proposed 1,250 feet/85 story Hines Tower (which some dubbed the MoMA monster) , the NYC Planning Commission voted yesterday to cut 200 feet off of the Jean Nouvel design; because another tall building in this city would just be overkill? Who knows. But the NY Times sheds some light on the thought process, noting that "Edith Hsu-Chen, the director of the Manhattan office of the Department of City Planning said that although the overall design of the building is 'exemplary,' the commission is concerned about its effect on the skyline, and does not feel that the top of the tower merits being in the zone of the Empire State Building’s iconic spire.”

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By Jen Carlson in News on September 10, 2009 1:50 PM

Comments [rss]

longacre

When you look at the skyline from Queens, Donald Trump's giant boring black apartment building on the east side appears just as tall as the ESB. Where were the planners for that one?

kissel

you cant build a skyscraper in midtown? you have to be f'ing kidding me. where else would one be on context? with this thinking we would have had no skyline at all. this city is going to s#@$. all that is going to happen now, is the will build out a big box to fill the square footage instead of slender tall tower. what a-holes we have making decisions here.

mdow

build that shit. seriously, when did we lose the balls to build big and build high? the idea that there's not space in the skyline 20 blocks from the ESB is ridiculous. so how about this--improve the top (bc it could be better, really) and build full height...

longacre

The government demanding changes to the building due to safety or traffic constraints is one thing, but demanding changes simply because "I don't like the way the top looks" sounds blatantly unconstitutional.

bxlex

This is why we have every moron tourist come into The Metropolitan Museum of Art and ask for dinosaurs. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is on 5th Avenue and 82nd street and is referred to as The Met. Fine. The MoMA is the Museum of MODERN Art and is on 53rd between 6th & 7th ave. That's way the hell down and to the west. I'd expect this kind of idiocy from the out of towners but a NYC blog/paper/whatever should know better. The Met may have a branch store near there BUT ITS NOT THE DAMN MET!

longacre

MoMA doesn't have dinosaurs, either. But it would be cooler if it did. Better yet, put a 200-ft animatronic dinosaur on top of this new tower.

NannyState

MoMA does indeed have dinosaurs. Ever seen their Clyfford Stills?

dr zippy

Literally a short-sighted decision.

MT

When did this town lose the balls it takes to build big and build high?

NannyState

Two words: Donald Trump. First with his awful Television City Tower proposal, then with his hideous Wall St. "world's tallest building" that thankfully never got built. You just can't trust most developers to do something this cool...so of course something this cool has to get thwacked. Idiots.

Kojak

Makes sense. You don't want to fuck up the skyline. Balance is key.

Jen S

It's the Museum of Modern Art, and the building's going to be awesome.

chris

I wouldn't consider the possibility of a building going there a given. That lot sat empty through a boom, and this whole ambivalent economic weather might just keep it so for the foreseeable future.