Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
The effort to convert the old Penn Central rail yard on the Far West Side of Manhattan into high-rises has bumped along since being proposed in the mid-1970s by a developer named Donald J. Trump.
What was proposed for the area often rankled neighbors, who found the buildings to be too tall, too close together and too pricey. But, after welcoming its first residents in the late 1990s, the controversial mega-project is entering its homestretch.
— The New York Times
The site includes buildings by architects like Richard Meier and the soon-too-be-completed Three Waterline Square by Rafael Viñoly. While Donald Trump is no longer the landlord, his name still appears on façades. View full entry
The Manhattan Waterfront Greenway is a 32-mile ring of parkland that surrounds Manhattan—or almost all of it, that is. Between 41st and 61st Streets along the East River lies a “glaring gap”, as The New York Times calls it. Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that the city will spend $... View full entry
Walk through the towering door now, and Midtown falls away. The transition is not abrupt; a visitor is met first with a bank of wooden cupboards, easing newcomers off the street and into the vastness of the house itself. Then, space. The main room provides an unimpeded vista through 100 feet of natural-lit openness, a glass wall, a courtyard and pond, and a small separate structure beyond. The effect — of muted light, of air, of cleanness — is moving. — The New York Times
Fresh from her daily column at The Paris Review, Sadie Stein visits a Philip Johnson-designed apartment/artistic showcase in midtown Manhattan known as the "Rockfeller Guest House."Combining a rich historical narrative with some evocatively observed design, this piece is, as befits its author, a... View full entry
“What if our buildings were long instead of tall?” ask oiio studio, authors of a new, speculative project titled “The Big Bend”. Their design, which seems to riff on Rafael Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue Condominium tower, features a horseshoe shaped tower that arcs high in the air, framing... View full entry
Ever since 19th century city commissioners laid a grid on the hilly island of Manhattan, New York City has been squeezing skyward. That’s meant natural light has always been in short supply—for some New Yorkers more than others. Access to sunshine was one of the main drivers of the first zoning laws, as a new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, Mastering the Metropolis, explores. — citylab.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Crowded skies: Sunlight as the new amenity for the super richWelcome to the permanent dusk: Sunlight in cities is an endangered speciesTwilight Zoning: What 100 years of zoning hath wrought, ft. special guest Mitch McEwen on Archinect Sessions #77Obama calls... View full entry
In ways big and small, architects like Mr. Berman have changed New York City this year. Projects like the library branch made it a little more livable and humane.
What follows is nothing nearly as disciplined or logical as a list of 2016’s architectural highs and lows in town. It’s more a kind of belated thank you note for a few projects that kept faith with architecture’s ideals and the city’s better self.
— nytimes.com
Kimmelman's NYC-best-of-16 roundup includes DS+R/Gensler's Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center, Via 57 West by Bjarke Ingels & team, and the Renzo Piano-designed Jerome L. Greene Science Center, among others.In the mood for more year-end reflections? Don't miss our ongoing series Archinect... View full entry
A majority of the windows at One World Trade Center haven’t been washed since 2015, because the system used to suspend the washers isn’t safe, a representative for the Durst Organization told The Real Deal. Typically, a boom at the top of the building lowers a window-washing rig that moves horizontally as the boom moves along a track on the roof. But in early 2016, Durst noticed that welding in the track — where pieces of metal are joined together — was riddled with cracks. — The Real Deal
The track, built in 2013, also has undersized bolts and suffers from other design flaws, said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesperson for Durst.Related:Port Authority plans to sell One World Trade Center for up to $5BTallest Lego model in the U.S. unveiled: One World Trade Center in all its pixely might... View full entry
The Intercept has published a fascinating, and eerie, investigation into the iconic Brutalist tower at 33 Thomas Street in Manhattan. Built to withstand a nuclear bomb, the modern fortress has no windows. At night, the building is a dark shadow blocking the illuminated towers around it.But... View full entry
[Dubbed “The Shed”,] The 18,500 square metre venue has six storeys and can “accommodate the broadest range of performance, visual art, music, and multi-disciplinary work”. A cultural centre will be encased in a 34m-high outer shell that can slide on rails to double the ground space. The building includes two large-scale column-free galleries comprising 2,320 square metres of museum-quality space, a 500-seat theater and event and rehearsal spaces. [Completion is due] in 2019. — globalconstructionreview.com
For more about New York's Hudson Yards: BIG-designed "The Spiral" Hudson Yards tower is inching closer to becoming reality Renderings of Thomas Heatherwick's "Vessel" for New York's Hudson Yard revealed Welcome to the Hudson Yards, c. 2019: the world's most ambitious "smart city" experiment View full entry
This is high-rent blight.
The vacancy problem is immediately visible but lacking in hard data. The intent of this project is to provide some background around commercial vacancies and use a map to give some insight into the extent of the issue, ideally doubling as a tool for community groups and policymakers to identify areas for intervention.
It's an obvious problem without a clear set of causes or solutions, but there are several contributing factors [...]
— vacantnewyork.com
Click here for the interactive VACANT NEW YORK map.Related stories in the Archinect news:New map tool reveals NYC's vacant lots zoned for revitalizationA New Mapping Tool Lets NYC Residents Peek Into Developers' PlansNew York City's tree species mapped View full entry
Pedestrianism among advocates and urban planners in the new, young century has been on the ascent in global cities far and wide, with many pushing for more restrictions on cars in the interests of bipeds and cyclists.
That was part of thinking behind the Shared Streets initiative, a five-hour long event over the weekend. It saw the city demarcate some 60 blocks of Manhattan’s oldest neighbourhood as part of an urban geographical experiment...
— the Guardian
Many cities have been trying to go car-less (at least temporarily). For more pedestrian-friendly initiatives, check out these links:Car-free events significantly improve air qualityPrince Charles calls to reclaim the streets from cars with his 10-point “master plan”Humanizing street... View full entry
Visitors to Manhattan will soon be greeted by a gleaming new 1,401-foot tower as they exit Grand Central Terminal, now that a lawsuit between two major real estate companies has been settled. Midtown TDR Ventures, the owners of historic Grand Central, withdrew their $1.1 billion lawsuit against SL... View full entry
Dubbed the Hotel Attraction (according to Matamala’s recollection), Gaudí proposed a parabolic skyscraper towering over the city at 360 meters. It would have been the tallest building in the world until the completion of the Empire State Building.
The exact location for the proposed tower is unknown, but a group of architects and historians argued that it was intended for the site of the first World Trade Center towers and put it forward for the Ground Zero memorial design competition in 2003.
— The Daily Beast
More on Archinect:"Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation" showcases the collaborative efforts to finish Gaudí's towering basilicaA 1-Minute Video Shows The Completion Of Gaudí's Sagrada Família View full entry
An appellate court on Thursday halted construction on Pier55... Crews had just begun work on the $130 million green space...
The opponents, led by the City Club of New York, filed suit in state Supreme Court in June 2015, arguing that the Hudson River Park Trust, the entity that manages and operates the park, did not go through the proper channels to launch the project and didn't adequately study the potential environmental impacts of Pier55.
— Crain's New York
The 2.7 acre, Thomas Heatherwick-designed park, which is funded largely by the Diller-von Furstenberg family, has been controversial for both its design and for the alleged secrecy surrounding it."The project is significantly imperiled at this point, and we are very happy about that," Richard... View full entry
As luxury condominiums go, 152 Elizabeth Street displays an unusual rigor and finesse: this is not an exercise in overindulgence, but in refined balance. With its 32,000 square feet split between seven individual residences, Tadao Ando's floor-to-celling windowed, burnished... View full entry