Archinect - News

New York City releases RFP to transform Park Avenue into a verdant, public space

2024-08-30T08:00:00-04:00

Earlier this week, the City of New York released a request for proposals (RFP) to redesign a portion of Park Avenue, between East 46th Street and East 57th Street, by adding greenery, public seating, concessions, and safer crossings for pedestrians.

This section of Park Avenue sits atop the Grand Central Terminal Train Shed, which is currently undergoing a major rehabilitation by the City and the MTA. The project includes replacing the train shed roof structure and waterproofing membrane, along with enhancing Park Avenue, which will be removed and reconstructed in stages as underground work occurs. The street will be restored with an expanded median for pedestrians. Its redesign aims to enhance public space, promote sustainable transit options, and foster community for residents and visitors.

The New York City Department of Transportation is seeking design services from a contractor with a background in landscape architecture or urban design to fill the wider median with elements,...

New public art commissions for NYC's soon-to-open Grand Central Madison expansion include mosaics by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith

2022-10-24T18:30:00-04:00

The terminal will also be an underground gallery of sorts, featuring enormous mosaics by two female artists with strong New York City connections, M.T.A. Arts & Design, which commissions art for the transit authority, is announcing Friday: Kiki Smith, a longtime resident known for her figurative work, and Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese sculptor and installation artist who lived in the city from 1958 to 1975.

The $11 billion transportation project opens in December after a lengthy 16-year construction period. Kusama’s past public installations have drawn the admiration of millions from outside the art and design worlds, while the German-born and New York-based Smith is considered a leading figure of the Downtown scene that was popular in the city throughout the 1980s and 90s. Both will be tasked with creating floor-to-ceiling mosaics covering 2,400 square feet total, according to the New York Times.

“Whether it’s the constellation ceiling or the Tiffany clock or the statue of Mercury — the art and design make the terminal a true landmark and a destination,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber said last week in a statement. “The new LIRR Grand Central Madison facility below the existing terminal carries this tradition forward with art that elevates the travel experience and creates a sense of place. These 2,400 sq. ft of floor-to-ceiling mosaics are permanent gifts to the people of New York.”

...

See the 1,600-foot tower proposed for the Grand Hyatt site next to Grand Central

2021-02-05T08:21:00-05:00

Renderings have been released for a tower replacing Midtown’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, Donald Trump’s first major Manhattan development. The proposed project at 175 Park Avenue would rise up to 83 stories and 1,646 feet, making it NYC's second-tallest building. The design comes from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and includes infrastructure upgrades to Grand Central Terminal and the subway station, as well as three elevated public outdoor spaces that wrap around the building.

Acoustic architecture and the geometry of "focalizers"

2017-11-30T12:41:00-05:00

Entering into a new space means stepping into a new acoustic arena. Whether subconscious or at the forefront of our attention, the way sound resonates in a built environment is part of a crafted experience influencing how people relate to a space. The presence of a circle or semi circle in architecture produces a specific phenomena which many encounter in passing. When an individual passes through the exact center of a dome their own voice is reflected back to them louder than any other sound in the present environment.

Classified by some as “focalizers”, these instances occur predominantly in cathedrals or capital domes. Where some may simply pass through, others seek out this center point to experience their own private arena of sound. The acoustical reflection is immediate, clear, and amplified above any other surrounding noise.

Whispering Gallery in Grand Central Terminal.

A related phenomenon is the "whispering wall", which occurs along a curved surface carrying even the slig...

Famed designer Jane Thompson dies

2016-08-24T14:19:00-04:00

The influential designer Jane Thompson passed away on Tuesday. Working fluidly across the fields of design, urbanism, and architecture, Thompson left a lasting mark on American visual culture.

Thompson started her career as the assistant curator at the Museum of Modern Art, then led by Philip Johnson. Afterwards, she helmed Industrial Design Magazine.

Thompson worked on the revitalization of Boston's Quincy Market alongside her husband, architect Benjamin Thompson. Other urban projects included the Chicago Navy Pier and the Grand Central Business District in New York.

One of Thompson's most influential endeavors was assisting her husband in operating the retail stores Design Research (D/R). Bring European designers like Alvar Aalto and Marikmekko into the United States, she helped introduce a generation of Americans to Scandinavian design. In a 2000 survey, D/R was named the number one design store, even after it had been closed for 22 years.

h/t Metropolis Mag

[Correction: originally th...

Construction on One Vanderbilt to move forward after lawsuit settled

2016-08-15T15:14:00-04:00

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 Green Realty Corp, the City Council, and the de Blasio administration on Wednesday.

A few years back, SL Green attempted to buy the air rights above Grand Central from TDR Ventures in order to build the tower higher than zoning allowed. But then the de Blasio administration rezoned the area in exchange for $200 million in transportation funds. This didn’t go over well with TDR, who felt cheated out of their compensation for air rights.

The lawsuit was withdrawn after a leadership change at TDR Ventures, which will allow SL Green to move forward with the project, which will be designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. The firm describes the tower as a "21st century successor to Rockefeller Center".

h/t ...

How Engineers Are Building a New Railroad Under New York City

2013-05-28T15:13:00-04:00

The biggest public transit infrastructure effort in the US is almost completely invisible — unless you’re 160 feet underground. The East Side Access project will connect the Long Island Railroad to New York’s Grand Central Terminal via a massive tunnel under the East River. Actually, that tunnel was the easy part; it was started in 1969. The hard part? “We are building a brand-new railroad here,” says Michael Horodniceanu, president of Metropolitan Transit Authority Capital Construction.

Beautiful photographs by Dean Kaufman. To view more of his photos from this story, go to his website.

100 Years of Grand Central Terminal

2013-03-18T13:20:00-04:00

and I watch everybody, every move. It's nerve-wracking, your blood pressure goes up ten points going through the door... - Jim Fahey (Assistant Chief in the Operation Control Center)

On March 1st, in celebration of it's centennial, Charlie Rose hosted a discussion on Grand Central Terminal. Gathered for the discussion were: Peter Stangl former president of Metro-North railroad; Kenneth Jackson of Columbia University; Sam Roberts of The New York Times and architect James Sanders.

Winners of Grand Central Terminal Drawing Competition

2012-12-24T15:25:00-05:00

In celebration of the upcoming centennial of New York City's Grand Central Terminal, the Architectural League of New York and the New York Transit Museum have announced the winners of a competition to select sketches by contemporary architects for a new Grand Central Terminal sketchbook produced in collaboration with Moleskine.

Grand Central Terminal Scheme by WXY Architecture + Urban Design

2012-10-23T19:12:00-04:00

A few days ago, we reported about SOM's and Foster + Partners' proposals for The Next 100, a design challenge for the future of the public realm around NYC's Grand Central Terminal.

Here is now also the entry by the third of the three firms that were selected to submit their visions, New York-based WXY Architecture + Urban Design.

Postcard night view

Project Description from the Architects:

WXY Architecture + Urban Design was one of three distinguished firms invited by New York City's Municipal Arts Society to create a vision for the future of the public areas around Grand Central Terminal and the surrounding East Midtown district. With deep experience in civic projects, the firm has proposed opening up more public space to city dwellers and visitors for enjoyment and reflection. The plan would also create inviting thoroughfares devoted to pedestrians and bicycle riders.

Tower looking up

“New zoning rules should trigger real transportation links to public space....

The Next 100 – Foster + Partners re-imagines Grand Central Terminal for 2013 Centenary

2012-10-19T12:36:00-04:00

Within the station, the proposal creates wider concourses, with new and improved entrances. Externally, streets will be reconfigured as shared vehicle/pedestrian routes, and Vanderbilt Avenue fully pedestrianised. The proposal also creates new civic spaces that will provide Grand Central with an appropriate urban setting for the next 100 years.

SOM Proposes Hovering Pedestrian Donut for Future Grand Central Terminal

2012-10-19T12:28:00-04:00

Perhaps to palliate our worst Kafka-esque architectural nightmares, the city invited three renowned architecture firms, WXY Architecture + Urban Design, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), and Foster + Partners, to imagine “the next 100 years” of Grand Central Station (which is fast approaching its 100th birthday) and the surrounding Midtown cityscape.