Perspectives on the Skyscraper City
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ctbuh.org/papers Title: Perspectives on the Skyscraper City Authors: Alexander Durst, Chief Development Officer, The Durst Organization Moshe Safdie, Founder, Safdie Architects Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, Bjarke Ingels Group MaryAnne Gilmartin, President & CEO, Forest City Ratner Companies Anthony Malkin, CEO, Empire State Realty Trust Silvian Marcus, Director of Building Structures, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff Michael Adlerstein, Assistant Secretary General, United Nations Capital Master Plan Michael Rudin, Vice President, Rudin Management Company, Inc. Robert Cotter, Planning Director, Jersey City Leslie Shepherd, Chief Architect, General Services Administration Daniel Libeskind, Founder, Studio Daniel Libeskind Subjects: Building Case Study History, Theory & Criticism Publication Date: 2015 Original Publication: CTBUH Journal, 2015 Issue IV Paper Type: 1. Book chapter/Part chapter 2. Journal paper 3. Conference proceeding 4. Unpublished conference paper 5. Magazine article 6. Unpublished © Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat / Alexander Durst; Moshe Safdie; Bjarke Ingels; MaryAnne Gilmartin; Anthony Malkin; Silvian Marcus; Michael Adlerstein; Michael Rudin; Robert Cotter; Leslie Shepherd; Daniel Libeskind New York 2015 Conference Special Perspectives on the Skyscraper City To commemorate the CTBUH 2015 International Conference, some of the most prominent voices in the New York tall building industry today – all of whom are speaking at the conference – offer their perspectives on the big issues that have emerged as the increasingly fluid and multi-directional flow of global capital has driven a skyscraper city resurgence. Key projects from around the city, highlighted here through mini case studies, accentuate and further exemplify these critical viewpoints. Beyond the Baseline: The Sound It is in a developer’s best interest to keep consumption of 40% below ASHRAE’s 2013 Economics of “Green and Tall” ahead of the curve and provide buildings that standards for commercial buildings. are more sustainable than the market or While many agree that legislation requires. A brief review of building The trend is obvious: building to a baseline we must reduce regulations that have recently been means forever struggling to keep up with greenhouse gases to implemented in New York City illustrates why increasing legislative pressure. Meanwhile, stem global warming, it is smart to be an early and eager adopter of regulatory bodies reward the more ambitious there is little sustainable technologies. sustainable builders with funding, stretched agreement as to how codes and tax incentives. The benefi ts of early we can achieve this In 2005, the City introduced Local Law 86, adoption generally far outweigh the Alexander Durst, Chief goal. The Durst requiring projects that receive signifi cant long-term costs. It is possible, for example, to Development Offi cer, The Organization believes municipal funding to be LEED-certifi ed. At substantially reduce source energy Durst Organization that developers that point, developers that had been building consumption with on-site generation, building for the future should always aim to green for years were far better poised to micro-grid development, and other implement the most eff ective and aggressive secure City dollars than those scrambling to distributed energy methods. Such sustainable sustainable measures that economy allows. make sense of the certifi cation process. measures go well beyond what current When it comes to building and operating tall regulations and market pressure demand. But buildings, the smart thing to do just happens In 2009, Local Law 87 mandated that buildings that employ these technologies will to be the right thing to do. buildings of more than 4,645 gross square be able to supply energy effi ciently to meters undergo regular energy auditing. high-demand tenants well into the future. Developers of tall buildings must recognize Buildings that failed to meet effi ciency the lasting impact of their work. In the United standards were subject to expensive, Global temperatures, greenhouse gas States, buildings consume 70% of the bureaucracy-addled retro-commissioning. For emissions, and sea levels continue to rise. electricity load, accounting for some 40% of buildings already operating near peak Developers can exhibit leadership by building carbon emissions. Both the scale of tall effi ciency, it was “business as usual.” to a standard that elevates the sustainable building construction and the impact of baseline and duly recognizes the scope and material used are massive. In addition to these In 2014, Mayor de Blasio challenged New York urgency of the challenge. important environmental considerations, tall to reduce its carbon emissions 80% by 2050, buildings built today become profoundly inte- outpacing Mayor Bloomberg’s earlier grated into the culture and economy of their commitment to a 30% reduction by 2030. The High-Rise Tower as a Building cities for generations to come. Buildings built Recommendations for reaching this Block for the Public Realm for the future must incorporate sustainability benchmark include updating the NYC Energy measures designed to last as well. Conservation Code within the next fi ve years Though the skyscraper to refl ect a target reduction in energy has been with us for over a century, we are yet to discover how to deploy it as an eff ective building block for Developers can exhibit leadership by building contemporary Moshe Safdie, Founder, urbanism. Before the “ Safdie Architects to a standard that elevates the sustainable baseline age of towers, we could and duly recognizes the scope and urgency of the take for granted that buildings aggregated to create boulevards, streets, squares, and crescents – wholesome places for the public challenge. – Alexander Durst, The Durst Organization ” realm. Today, the dominant typology of towers 20 | New York 2015 Conference Special CTBUH Journal | 2015 Issue IV One World Trade Center Rising from the northwest corner of edges are chamfered back, the World Trade Center (WTC) resulting in a faceted form site, One World Trade Center composed of eight elongated recaptures the New York skyline, isosceles triangles. At its middle, reasserts downtown Manhattan’s the tower forms a perfect octagon preeminence as a business center, in plan. It culminates in a glass and establishes a new civic icon parapet rotated 45 degrees from for the United States. It is a the base. A luminous glass curtain memorable architectural wall sheaths the tower on all sides landmark for the city and the from the fi rst offi ce fl oor to the nation, connecting seamlessly to observatory. Designers worked with its surroundings with entrances on industry experts to develop glass of all four elevations and linkages to unprecedented scale, which is an extensive underground capable of withstanding both wind transportation network. loads at supertall height and stringent security requirements. The tower’s spire reaches the symbolic height of 1,776 feet, a nod to the year that the CTBUH 2015 One World Trade Center, New York. United States declared New York Conference © SOM/James Ewing independence, and is topped Alexander Durst, Chief Development Offi cer of The Durst Organization will be Completion Date: November 2014 with a large revolving beacon. discussing One World Trade Center in his Height: 541 m (1,776 ft) Sited north of the National presentation, “Effi cient Energy Production for High Demand Tenants” Stories: 94 September 11 Memorial, the during Session 1e: New New York Floor plans – 45, 75 & 90. Typologies, on Monday, October 26 at Area: 325,279 sq m (3,501,274 sq ft) tower rises from a cubic base; its © Durst Organization 11:15 am. Primary Function: Offi ce is still that of a singular, autonomous structure In this world of towers, designed as a contribution to the urban fabric will prevail – experienced as a lone sculptural object in collective – connecting, bridging, and until we can come up with an equally the cityscape. Alternatively, and becoming creating urban places at various levels – compelling concept for how to deploy the more common, (particularly in Asia) are opens up a new realm of possibilities for a high-rise tower as a building block for a clusters of mixed-use towers atop a podium, better functioning and humane city. Tower well-conceived and understood public realm. predominantly designed as self-contained, design would then become considered as Clearly, we must reinvent streets and piazzas introverted, and privatized environments. part of an assembly of towers, creating a new into something more continuous, more Planning, zoning, and urban design guidelines kind of urban fabric, rather than – as it is too three-dimensional, capable of cohabiting with have not provided the tools to accommodate often, a set of competing narcissistic public transportation and vehicular traffi c. I and regulate the great inter-dependency of sculptural objects. To be clear, in the tradi- am not speaking of the complex of towers towers in the city, the impact on light and tional city the concepts of the public realm separated by freeways of Le Corbusier’s Ville view, nor on each other and their – streets, piazzas, gallerias, agoras, souks, and Radieuse, or Hilberseimer’s Ideal City, but surroundings, let alone getting towers to bazaars – were all formed by incremental, rather of a more complex new urbanism of cluster in a complementary way in the city. additive, individual structures, each a building clustering high-rise buildings, in a block of the