this spread: At a height of 821 feet (250 metres), 56 towers over . The cantilevered High society indeed. As cities worldwide invest in radically vertical architecture to glass structure boasts an original manage growth harmoniously, New York turns its eye to needle buildings and other lofty architectural strategies Anish Kapoor

to accommodate the rise of Lower . By Claudia Steinberg & de Meuron Herzog courtesy Street, 56 Leonard sculpture at its base.

FOUR SEASONS MAGAZINE / ISSUE 1 / 2016 138 139 was once an actual canal— TriBeCa and Lower freeze into a film set: Within the strict a waterway carved into the bedrock in the limitations prescribed by the Landmarks 1800s to drain the swamps around the Hudson Manhattan, of course, aren’t Preservation Commission, new architectural River. Today, pedestrians crossing the street “the first to face the challenge life sprouts from the smallest lots and even from SoHo (to the north) to TriBeCa on top of existing buildings. Case in point: (to the south) navigate instead an unrelenting of incorporating rapid growth Enrique Norten’s six-storey glass addition to stream of cars. But on the other side of that thoughtfully into an existing a 19th-century brick building at the corner of turbulent Canal divide, a New York version and Canal Street—luxury loft of peace awaits. As you walk towards the cityscape. has apartments ofering expansive views of the towers of the Financial District in Lower experienced the doubling of Manhattan skyline. Manhattan, the cacophony of horns and sirens While some new buildings mimic their recedes. Yet one category of sound is still its population to more than 19th-century brick and stone predecessors, present: the hubbub of construction. 24 million in the last three others share Norten’s fresh approach. At Lower Manhattan, roughly defined as V33, located at 31–33 Vestry Street, architect the below 14th Street—including the decades, and has opted to deal Winka Dubbeldam integrated a fragmented neighbourhoods of Greenwich Village, SoHo, with that expansion by growing relief of glass and stone between two buildings Little Italy, the Lower East Side, Chinatown, from previous generations. It’s a respectful the Meatpacking District, Battery Park significantly upwards. this spread: but uncompromising newcomer, asserting City, TriBeCa and the Financial District— (left) The Shanghai what architecture critic Michael Sorkin Tower, in a city is home to the single largest concentration that has faced calls “multiple synchronicities,” the peaceful of construction in New York’s history. ” many of the same coexistence of a many-layered past and a Around 20,000 people lived here in 2001; development complex present. today that number is more than 70,000. challenges as TriBeCa and Lower Manhattan, of course, New York; (below) TriBeCa (the Triangle Below Canal Street), historic view of aren’t the first to face the challenge of incor- home of the upcoming Four Seasons Hotel and Canal Street (when porating rapid growth thoughtfully into an Residences New York Downtown (see page 142), it was a canal) existing cityscape. Shanghai has experienced is one of the fastest-growing neighbourhoods the doubling of its population to more than in the city, and among its most afuent. And 24 million in the last three decades, and has TriBeCa ofers a challenge for development— opted to deal with that expansion by growing it’s home to so many noteworthy buildings significantly upwards. Since 1990, nearly 400 that much of its 0.333-square-mile territory is high-rises of 20 storeys or more have been under landmark protection. built in the historic core of . (Like New Unlike its neighbour SoHo, famous for York, Shanghai possesses a treasure trove of homogeneous blocks of 19th-century cast-iron Art Deco buildings from the time of its first façades, TriBeCa revels in architectural economic boom.) After the city outgrew its diversity: stately Romanesque Revival and | A HISTORY OF HEIGHT historic business district, arose Italianate structures, for example, most built across from waterfront promenade in the 1800s when the “Lower West Side” on the formerly agricultural stretch called was an important centre of America’s cotton Since 1997, The 1857 the Tribune Building, Joseph Pulitzer’s New 1908 opening night, the . Completed in 2015, the Shanghai and textile trade. The 32-storey New York Museum The ornate cast-iron at 260 feet (79 metres). York World newspaper, The slenderness of building was lit by Tower conquers 2,073 vertical feet (632 Telephone Building from 1923 was the first has celebrated New façade of the six-storey 1884 reached 309 feet the Singer Building 80,000 incandescent metres) while minimising land use. The tower Art Deco tower, one of the earliest skyscrap- York’s architectural Haughwout Building At 150 feet (46 metres), (94 metres) at the top required architect light bulbs. and two near neighbours, the Shanghai World ers built after the 1916 Zoning Resolution heritage. According to was designed by archi- the red brick Hotel of its gold dome. Its Ernest Flagg and engi- 1931 Financial Centre and , now the museum, these are tect James Bogardus. became the hybrid “cage” system neer Otto F. Semsch The Empire State demanded the stepped-back top that so Chelsea figure among the world’s tallest buildings. a few milestones from It was the first com- tallest residential struc- used steel framing to to employ innovative Building was erected defines New York’s style moderne. In the early the early days of the mercial building with a ture in the city. The support the structure wind-bracing designs. in 11 months. The 204- As an urban entity of unprecedented size, 1970s, when the area had around 300 inhabit- city’s skyscrapers: passenger . 12-storey private apart- and embedded metal When it was completed, foot (62-metre) spire Shanghai is testing the limits of how a city ants, artists began to colonise the abandoned 1870 ment cooperative was columns to bear the the 612-foot (187- atop its 103 storeys can grow without losing its personality. textile loft spaces. In an environment so rich 1846 The Equitable Build- converted to a hotel in weight of the floors. metre) tower was the pushed its height to TriBeCa is now poised to follow suit, with history, even the few formerly sinister pas- Trinity Church was ing, hailed as one of 1905 and is famous for 1894 tallest in the world. 1,454 feet (443 metres). expanding radically and creatively upwards sages like Cortlandt Alley and Collister Street built at the head of New York’s first sky- its avant-garde resi- The Manhattan Life 1913 1932 while preserving as many of the surrounding now aford great prestige; their zigzagging fire Wall Street. At 281 feet scrapers, reached dents, including Andy Insurance Building At 792 feet (241 The 66-storey build- structures as possible. This year, the most escapes, bricks, blackened doors and metal (86 metres), including a record 142 feet (43 Warhol, Mark Twain was one of the first to metres), the Woolworth ing at 70 Pine Street individualistic example will be completed at shutters are marks of prized authenticity. its spire and cross, the metres). It was dwarfed and Bob Dylan. use pneumatic caissons Building was pro- was the last structure 56 Leonard Street. Neither sleek nor anony- neo-Gothic building in 1875 by the for its foundations, and claimed the “world’s added to the Lower No wonder TriBeCa—one of the city’s Western 1890 mous, this 821-foot (250-metre) stack of was the highest point Union Building, at 230 The New York World reached a height of 348 greatest skyscraper.” Manhattan skyline oldest residential areas—is constantly sought dwellings by Herzog & de Meuron eschews the in New York. feet (70 metres), and Building, home to feet (106 metres). To celebrate its before World War II. out as a movie backdrop. Yet it refuses to repetition of a singular floor plan and ofers Shanghai Tower, courtesy Gensler; Canal Street, The Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York (1865); New York skyline, www.teleky.com

FOUR SEASONS MAGAZINE / ISSUE 1 / 2016 FOUR SEASONS MAGAZINE / ISSUE 1 / 2016 140 141

So far, towers of the new super-tall, super-skinny “genre have arisen mostly in Midtown, spurred by foreign investment and vertical competition with Beijing, London and . Rafael Viñoly’s tower (centre) already surpasses the by 150 feet, and several more ‘needles’ now pierce the sky over Central Park. ” Photography courtesy DBOX for CIM Group & Macklowe Properties

this spread: Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly will soon build a tower in Lower Manhattan that’s similar to his 432 Park Avenue needle building (centre).

FOUR SEASONS MAGAZINE / ISSUE 1 / 2016 FOUR SEASONS MAGAZINE / ISSUE 1 / 2016 142 143 instead 145 pixellated variations on the glass Bjarke Ingels’ Two World heavens. One of the most important factors box, with its most extreme extensions jutting for determining the slenderness of a build- out at the top in a reversal of the receding Trade Center is the most ing is its intended use, which fits with Lower Art Deco crown. Just a few blocks away at “adventurous of the city’s new Manhattan’s population growth: Often, only Park Place and Church Street, architect residential towers can achieve a super-thin Robert A.M. Stern’s 937-foot cast-concrete towers. When complete, the contour, because they don’t need the wide and limestone edifice reaches into the clouds. glass-clad skyscraper will elevator core that an ofce tower requires. (See “Opening Soon,” below right.) High-rises can now be planted on the Though on the very edge of structural consist of a series of stacked tiniest parcels, helping to preserve historic feasibility, skyscrapers like 56 Leonard are ‘boxes’ that decrease in size neighbourhoods. In the 1960s and ’70s, hun- a harbinger of even taller buildings that will dreds of old buildings—produce and meat soon punctuate TriBeCa’s low- to medium- towards the top, rising to a markets dating to the early 19th century—were rise landscape. So far, towers of the new height of 1,340 feet (408 metres) razed in TriBeCa to make room for middle- super-tall, super-skinny residential genre height, horizontal development. By contrast, have arisen mostly in Midtown, spurred by in a stepped format that will needles ofer a way to help keep neighbour- foreign investment and vertical competition lead the eye to the neighbouring hoods from wiping out historic structures with Beijing, London and Dubai. Rafael —or from stagnating and resisting growth. Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue tower already Freedom Tower. Needle buildings will no doubt continue this spread: surpasses the Empire State Building (with- (left) View from to be part of the area’s expansion, as planners out the spire) by 150 feet, and several more atop Bjarke Ingels’ and developers seek to accommodate growth “needles”—usually with a base-to-height ratio ” stacked-cuboid in the smartest ways possible. Architect between 1-to-10 and 1-to-23—now pierce the design for Two Vishaan Chakrabarti, whose “wafer-thin” New York sky. But a new giant will change the World Trade Center, tower overlooking Central Park has been in Lower Manhattan; face of Lower Manhattan. With a very slim, (below) the tower praised for its ethereal sophistication, sees glass-clad, 1,356-foot (413-metre) rectangular will rise to 1,340 feet not only prestige, profit and beauty but also tower on , Viñoly will make (408 metres) civic virtue in these high-reaching structures. another minimalist mark. Founder of the Partnership for Architecture While the rapidly proliferating needles and Urbanism (PAU) and an associate profes- have been criticised by some, architecture sor at Columbia University, Chakrabarti critic Paul Goldberger defends their slender- argues for skyward expansion as the most ness as a virtue: “What they take away from important tool for contributing to the “health, the street they give back to a skyline that has prosperity and sustainability of cities.” been robbed of much of its classic romantic In a way, the attacks of September 11, 2001, form by the bulky, flat-topped ofce towers.” forced Lower Manhattan into an architec- Carol Willis, the founder, director and tural experiment. With the destruction of the curator of Museum in Lower OPENING SOON | Four Seasons Hotel and Residences New York Downtown World Trade Center, a huge swathe of space Manhattan’s Battery Park City, devoted an was left to be reclaimed, and the reclamation entire exhibition to the improbably lean is in progress. Bjarke Ingels’ Two World Trade towers, and now considers them part of the What’s it like to design to a neighbourhood to the ballroom are dawned a romantic skyscraper; the firm wonder who lives in Center is the most adventurous of the city’s fabric of New York. Their lines may appear a 937-foot (286-metre) that’s transitioning visible through large notion of living high complemented its that apartment?’ The new towers. When complete, the glass-clad fanciful, but they are a product of strictly skyscraper that will from a business district windows, visually invit- in a pre-war ofce terracotta façades expressive façades are skyscraper will consist of a series of stacked regimented land and air rights and the artful become part of the to a vibrant 24/7 com- ing guests inside. “This tower. “It turned out, with masonry façades another way that our “boxes” that decrease in size towards the top, negotiations that maximise the finite square iconic New York sky- munity,” Lobitz says. active participation in though, that most of for 30 Park Place. building communi- rising to a height of 1,340 feet (408 metres) in line? We asked The firm looked to the those towers don’t “A glass tower would cates with the larger footage allotted to each building. Daniel revitalisation of a stepped format that will lead the eye to the Lobitz, a partner at the neighbourhood’s Lower Manhattan will adapt well to residen- have been wrong on community.” Even though, in Willis’ words, “form neighbouring Freedom Tower. The stacked Robert A.M. Stern historic development weave our building not tial living,” Lobitz says. this site,” Lobitz says. No doubt, 30 follows finance,” and needle towers embody Architects and lead patterns to design a only into the urbanism “Our building weds the “Glass connotes ofce Park Place makes a cuboids, which will sport rooftop terraces “the logic of luxury,” the skyscraper, she says, designer of the new slender tower with of the neighbourhood dream of skyscraper use, and stone residen- well-considered new planted with lush vegetation, bring to mind is still a romantic figure. The quest for elegant Four Seasons Hotel a base that hugs the but into its social life,” living to that of the tial. The Woolworth is statement within historian Jacques Barzun’s assertion about slimness dates to its very beginnings: The and Residences New street on three sides, Lobitz says. spacious TriBeCa-style capped with a pyram- the skyline. “We the city’s personality-defining silhouette: carried as little bulk as York Downtown. defining a public park He notes that peo- apartments in a state- idal spire; our building respect the iconic “New York is a skyline, the most stupendous, was possible in 1913, and in 1924 the architect “The 30 Park Place to the east. The lobby ple first started moving of-the-art building.” relates with a series of older masonry towers unbelievable man-made spectacle since the Raymond Hood even proposed a “City of property bridges on Barclay Street, back Downtown when The Woolworth setbacks that create of Downtown,” Lobitz Hanging Gardens of Babylon.” ■ Needles.” Now, improvements in materials TriBeCa and the the Wolfgang Puck developers reimagined Building, just down the idea of a crown. says. “By adopting Financial District, along the industrial buildings the block, provided “All of this indi- the same strategies as like super-strength concrete and innovations restaurant adding a five-star hotel Church Street and a of TriBeCa as loft- inspiration from the viduality will inspire those buildings, I think German-born and Manhattan-based, Claudia in wind management and load distribution and upscale residences sweeping staircase like residences. Then early days of the passersby to ask, ‘I ours fits beautifully.” Steinberg is an architecture, design and travel writer for have pushed those needles higher into the Architektur & Wohnen, Surface and German Vogue. 2WTC terraces and exterior, courtesy BIG; 30 Park Place, courtesy Robert A.M. Stern Architects

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