Results tagged “skidmoreowings”

Columbia University's plan to expand its campus into Manhattanville has prompted much debate about the eminent domain, college's commitment to the neighborhood, and gentrification and its effects on the community. The NY Sun revealed last week that Columbia spent over $400,000 for lobbying between January and April of this year, a sign that the school is getting aggressive to make sure its plans come through. And yesterday, there was a NY Times Op-Ed by former Mayor David Dinkins, titled Don’t Fear Columbia, in support of the Manhattanville plan. Here's an excerpt:

Columbia University’s proposal to develop the old Manhattanville manufacturing zone of West Harlem over the next two decades is the perfect example of a change that will generate growth and benefit all...

Continue reading "Dinkins Supports Columbia's Manhattanville Plan"

Billionaire developer and owner of U.S. News & World Report and the Daily News Mortimer Zuckerman has donated $100 million to Memorial Sloan-Kettering for cancer research. The NY Times says it's the biggest in the hospital's history, and one of the largest to a medical institutiong overall. Since the donation is unrestricted, MSK will be putting most of it towards their new research building on First Avenue and East 68th Street. The 23 floor building, designed by Skidmore Owings Merrill, will be named after the mogul. Zuckerman said, "New York is a city that inspires philanthropy. There are more people who support more eleemosynary institutions than any other place by far. It's one of the reasons I love this city." Yeah, we had to look that up too, but, hey, big word for big donation.

If you've ever wondered how the highest profile skyscraper in the world was redesigned, wonder no more: The NY Times published a look at how architects cranked out the new design, with political officials peering over one shoulder, an anxious developer at the other, and the expectations of the NYPD looming. Besides enjoying the fact that Skidmore Owings & Merrill architects would turn to Lombardi's for their pizza runs ("three meals in a row, straight - 8 to 10 pies" according to the project mananger), Gothamist found this bit about the Freedom Tower's chief architect, David Childs, and the tower's original architect, Daniel Libeskind, fascinating:

:Mr. Childs and the architect Daniel Libeskind, who created the site's master plan, said that they never approached the level of contention they had reached while working on the original tower. As Mr. Childs and his team slaved away, [John] Cahill and [Stefan] Pryor made it their mission to keep Mr. Libeskind in the loop, and ultimately he called the design "even better than the tower we had before."

Continue reading "How Freedom Tower Was Redesigned"

The new Freedom Tower design was presented yesterday, showing the more fortress-like design (the NY Post calls it "Fort Zero") that's supposed to meet the NYPD's standards for safer and more bomb-resistant buildings. The jury is out: It's less ugly than before (at least this design had one vision, versus two stitched together), but it's still...lacking. But safer, so it seems New Yorkers are being asked to choose between safe designs and ones that can really lift people's spirits. Curbed had instant reviews yesterday (a mixed-bag), and today, the NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff's assessment is, as expected, withering: "The new obelisk-shaped tower, which stands on an enormous 20-story concrete pedestal, evokes a gigantic glass paperweight with a toothpick stuck on top." However, the criticism has come into a new stage, where people are pitying architect David Childs for having to whip together a design in a few weeks.

The supposedly safer Freedom Tower designs will be unveiled today, and it's more streamlined. And maybe more boring - but any hopes of something interesting went away when Larry Silverstein got more involved with the design. The NY Times writes that the tower's "height and proportion, centered antenna and cut-away corners, tall lobbies and pinstripe facade [evokes] - both deliberately and coincidentally - the sky-piercing twins it is meant to replace." The tower, designed by David Childs and his firm, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, is now set further back and has a more reinforced base; there's no more spire, windmills on the roof, latticework, and other elements of the Daniel Libeskind deign. It will be, however, still be 1,776 feet tall. The wild card is when Freedom Tower will be completed (2009? 2010?); an interesting point is that now the simpler design may help save money and time.

great to have a Freedom Tower design by June, but designing a symbolic, safe and useful 1,776 foot tower in the place where there have been two bombings deserves as much time as it needs. Perhaps Skidmore Owings and Merrill is dusting off never-submitted Freedom Tower designs from the earlier competition! Anyway, the NYPD has even approved the preliminary design, so Gothamist suspects some serious weekend hours were put into getting something started.

More details on what Moynihan Station will include is considered breathtaking; see the plans for the new Moynihan Station at Skidmore Owings & Merrill.

The Department of Transportation has announced the winning design for its City Lights competition, which was meant to "seek out and identify new ideas for public street lighting" and "obtain the flexibility to apply an integrated streetlight design on a block-by-block, street-by-street, or district-by-district basis within the city's five boroughs." The winning design is from Thomas Phifer and Partners. The visualization of the design, above, shows a simple design with thin wires arms supporting the arch of the light. It's attractive, but Gothamist also really likes the designs from second place Skidmore Owings & Merrill: An elegant curve over streets or more lantern like lamps in rendering of the promenade in Central Park.

Signing off on the project would be a concrete gesture of good will that could not be measured in political platitudes. If you go to Childs' firm's site, Skidmore Owings Merrill, launch the site, and click on transportation projects, you can access more photos of the new Penn Station design.