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The Moleskine Foundation's latest exhibition features notebooks of artists and architects such as Michael Graves, Carlo Stanga, and 2022 Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré

2022-05-13T17:07:00-04:00

A new book arts exhibition from celebrated notebook maker Moleskine is now on view at One World Trade Center’s One World Observatory, marking the first public exhibition of artwork in the attraction’s seven-year history.

Opened today, the Moleskine Foundation’s Detour New York exhibition features notebooks by the late architect Michael Graves, Italian architect Carlo Stanga, and this year’s Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré.

Carlo Stanga, "I had a dream" (2019). Image courtesy Moleskine Foundation.

According to the foundation, the suite of 75 individual artworks by various creative thinkers “celebrates how blank pages can become a work of art in themselves, providing moments of inspiration and introspection.” The exhibition is separated into five themes: Metamorphosis, Memory, Borders, Journey, and Imagination. Each notebook tells a different story, dream, or “distinctive way of being and relating to the world.”

In Memory, viewers can see this introspection perhaps most espe...

Condé Nast settles back rent dispute with One World Trade Center developers following a yearlong standoff

2021-08-10T18:43:00-04:00

A protracted standoff between the landlords at One World Trade Center and the parent company of Condé Nast appears to have finally reached a conclusion … for now. Advance Publications executives Steven and Donald Newhouse have agreed to pay almost $10 million in back rent owed to co-developers the Durst Organization and the Port Authority, the New York Post reported.

Condé Nast had apparently been looking to break its lease with the Durst Organization that was set to run through 2039. The 112-year-old media company was originally a headline tenant of the building, which has had trouble filling its more than 3.5 million square feet of office space since opening in 2014.

Vacancy rates in Manhattan's Financial District have risen to 20% as a result of the pandemic. The New York Post has more on the settlement here.

The lawsuit against SOM's alleged plagiarism of WTC continues by "the skin of its teeth," says judge

2019-10-18T11:03:00-04:00

Park claimed the design, construction and marketing of the tower ripped off a design he planned and modeled for his thesis at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999. He said his thesis adviser was an associate partner at SOM and a second senior partner from the architectural firm also reviewed his work... The judge, however, wrote in a September order that these claims survive “only by the skin of their teeth, owing principally to the highly deferential standards on a motion to dismiss.”

Jeehon Park, a Georgia-based architect, sued Skidmore, Owings & Merril, Tishman Construction, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and The Durst Organization back in 2017.

According to The Real Deal, an SOM spokesperson said, "While it is positive that so much of the case was dismissed, SOM is still in the position of having to defend itself against these specious claims." He went on to express it "inexplicable" that "Park filed his suit after Tower One was completed and a full decade after the building's design was first unveiled," reports The Real Deal.

Park's design on the left. WTC on right.

What's that smell? It's the custom scent created for the Observatory at One World Trade Center

2019-08-07T18:59:00-04:00

But since late last month, the scent of wood and citrus has permeated the 101st floor. The scent was made to resemble something that does not exist at the top of one of the tallest buildings in the world: trees, all native to New York State, including beeches, mountain ashes and red maples. It has some citrusy notes, for freshness. And it has a name: “One World.”

The New York Times delves into what went into creating "One World," the "sleek" and "modern" fragrance developed by scent designers IFF, the company behind Abercrombie & Fitch's "Fierce" cologne and other notable scents, for the One World Trade Center tower's observatory.

Keith Douglas, managing director of the observatory and a major force behind the idea to create the custom scent, tells The New York Times he sought to create "a subtle complement to the experience” of being 1,700-feet up in the sky. “We didn’t want it to be something that was distracting or overwhelming. We wanted the exact polar opposite,” Douglas explained.

Did SOM rip off this architect's designs for One World Trade Center?

2017-06-15T12:27:00-04:00

A Korean-born architect on Wednesday sued a major architecture firm over the design of Manhattan's One World Trade Center, claiming that the building bears a "striking similarity" to a tower he designed in 1999 while in graduate school. Jeehoon Park accused Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of falsely claiming design credit for the 104-story One World Trade Center, whose 1,776-foot (541 m) height including the spire makes it the Western Hemisphere's tallest building.

Park is president of Qube Architecture, a Georgia-based practice. His design, shown below, was made when he was getting a masters from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Park is seeking unspecified damages.

According to the architect, Skidmore has access to the design through an associate partner—one of Park's thesis advisors.

Park's design on the left, One World Trade Center on the right

One World Trade Center needs a bath—but its washing system is broken

2016-11-28T13:38:00-05:00

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 track, built in 2013, also has undersized bolts and suffers from other design flaws, said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesperson for Durst.

Port Authority plans to sell One World Trade Center for up to $5B

2016-09-06T12:52:00-04:00

When Condé Nast moved its 3,400 employees moved into One World Trade Center, Port Authority hoped it would attract more tenants. Now two years later, the tower is still one third empty. In fact, it only brought in $13 million in revenue last year– a mere 0.35 percent return on its investment. Now the cash-strapped Port Authority has made plans to sell One World Trade Center for as much as $5 billion, making it the highest price ever paid for an office building in the country.

Tallest Lego model in the U.S. unveiled: One World Trade Center in all its pixely might

2016-07-05T12:55:00-04:00

Just in time for the Independence Day weekend, Legoland is showing off an extensive remodel of its New York miniland, dominated by a towering replica of Manhattan’s One World Trade Center. [...] Nearly a year in the making, the redesigned New York area includes a number of new buildings, a dozen more moving automobiles and a subway system with new cars and tracks that are illuminated and feature sound effects that mimic the real thing.

The Legoland announcement proudly boasts these details:

"The One World Trade Center LEGO model is built with more than 250,000 LEGO bricks, and took eight Master Model Builders more than 1200 hours to build. This dynamic structure weighs more than 1,000 pounds and towers at a record breaking 26 feet, making it the tallest LEGO model in the U.S. For the first time ever, guests can use a special LEGO tower viewer giving them a skyscraper view of Miniland U.S.A. The area also features LEGO model replicas of the 9/11 Memorial’s twin reflecting pools, the grove of memorial trees and the impressive World Trade Center Transportation Hub."

2 World Trade Center Could Be the Most Expensive Office Tower in the World

2015-08-06T13:25:00-04:00

Construction of the Bjarke Ingels-designed 2 World Trade Center will come with a $4 billion price tag. The 2.8 million-square-foot downtown tower will top out at 1,340 feet, just 28 feet shy of One World Trade Center, which currently holds the title of the world’s most expensive office building with construction costs coming in at $3.8 billion.

Larry Silverstein, developer of 2 World Trade Center, is looking for $500 million in financing to fund the $4 billion tower’s completion. If all goes according to plan, a lease could be signed by the end of the year and construction could start next year with a 2020 completion date.

11 years of One World Trade Center construction in one short time-lapse video

2015-06-05T18:33:00-04:00

Say what you want about One World Trade Center (and much has already been said here on Archinect), but it sure is a heck of a construction project.

From the laying of the symbolic cornerstone on July 4, 2004 to the recent opening of One World Observatory on May 29, 2015, it took the tower eleven years to fully push its 104 floors into the world.

A fascinating new EarthCam time-lapse video now presents the lengthy building process in a handy less-than-two-minute montage.

Scroll on for some screen shots and the video below.

Foster's Out, Ingels' In: BIG-Designed Two World Trade Center to House News Corp. and 21st Century Fox

2015-06-03T13:52:00-04:00

“This isn’t your grandfather’s Wall Street.”

According to a statement issued on Tuesday, the design of Two World Trade Center, which was formerly the province of Foster + Partners, is now being handled by Bjarke Ingels' firm BIG and will likely house employees of both 21st Century Fox and News Corp. The media organizations inked a non-binding agreement with developer Larry Silverstein that places them in the tower, which as of now is slated to be the second-tallest tower in the four-tower World Trade Center complex. The proposed move is significant not only because many of the towers still boast significant amounts of unleased space (the two companies would occupy 1.3 million square feet of the tower's 2.8 million total available), but because both 21st Century Fox and News Corp. represent a new type of tenant for the traditionally financially dominated area. According to Bloomberg, Christopher Jones, vice president of research at New York's Regional Plan Association said, “People were expecting financial companies to be a sub...

The view from One World Trade Center

2015-06-01T12:49:00-04:00

Legends, a company that manages skyboxes and stadiums and now runs the World Trade Center observation deck, has turned the view into a high-tech spectacular. Before you get a glimpse of an actual place, you follow a winding path through cheesy synthetic bedrock; ride an elevator where 500 years of an ever-changing New York unfold as if seen from a rising balloon [...] A view gives the illusion of omniscience.

The observatory, located on floors 100, 101 and 102, opened to the public on May 29th.

Nordstrom Tower aiming to snatch 'tallest building' title from One World Trade Center

2015-05-11T13:52:00-04:00

The current race to the top of the skyline is the most impressive in New York City’s history, with ever-taller skyscrapers sprouting from the Financial District all the way to 57th Street. And YIMBY has now learned that 217 West 57th Street, aka the Nordstrom Tower, received a height boost between April and June of last year, pushing the tower’s pinnacle to 1,795 feet. That will make it the tallest building in New York City, the United States, and the Western Hemisphere.

Previously

New York's getting a better view: One World Observatory to open May 29

2015-04-07T14:25:00-04:00

One World Observatory today announced that its official public opening date will be Friday, May 29, 2015. [...] Positioned on top of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere – on levels 100, 101, and 102 of the One World Trade Center building – One World Observatory will provide guests with unique, panoramic views of New York City, its most iconic sites, and surrounding waters from above 1,250 feet.

Visitors will board one of five dedicated elevators, termed Sky Pods, to ascend to the 102nd floor in under 60 seconds. Immersive, floor-to-ceiling LED technology in each cab invites guests to experience a virtual time-lapse that recreates the development of New York City’s skyline from the 1600s to present day.

Click on the panorama image above for the larger version. (Copyright: Evan Joseph Images)

Port Authority reveals plan to sell World Trade Center site

2014-12-29T12:50:00-05:00

Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie have turned to a familiar idea in their pledge to reform the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey: selling its real estate. A report released over the weekend highlights a plan to sell off many of the agency’s sprawling property holdings, by far the most notable of which is the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. That concept has long been pushed within the agency, and it has been implemented gradually over the past decade and a half.

1 WTC tops the list of most expensive skyscrapers

2014-12-03T11:05:00-05:00

One World Trade Center is by far the world's most expensive building, coming in at $3.9B, nearly double the second-most expensive buildings, Vegas' Palazzo casino and London's The Shard, which both cost $1.9B to build. Perhaps even more surprising, Dubai's dizzying Burj Khalifa, currently the world's tallest building, comes in at number five

Michael Kimmelman Reviews 1 World Trade Center

2014-11-30T13:14:00-05:00

“It’s not so bad,” offered an architect who has a window facing the building. Alas, it is. Like the corporate campus and plaza it shares, 1 World Trade speaks volumes about political opportunism, outmoded thinking and upside-down urban priorities. It’s what happens when a commercial developer is pretty much handed the keys to the castle.

New York state of mind: Weekly News Round-Up for November 10, 2014

2014-11-17T14:53:00-05:00

Thursday, November 13:

Smithsonian hires BIG architecture group for $2 billion South Mall renovation plan: While approval is still pending, the large-scale renovation will include "two underground levels of visitor amenities" and could take up to twenty years to complete.

Lucas museum faces lawsuit from Friends of the Parks: The nonprofit advocacy group claims that cordoning off the Chicago waterfront for Lucas' museum violates the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing "equal protection and due process" for deciding what to do with land belonging to the state of Illinois.

Wednesday, November 12:

Two window washers trapped on scaffolding at 1 WTC: The two men were shortly rescued by firemen, after uneven ascending cables left them dangling at a 65-degree angle 827ft in the air.

The Courtyard House Plug-In: A House Within The House: People's Architecture Office created a modular interior set to install in Beijing's historic buildings, as a renovation alternative to demolition.

The Race to Save Archi...

Two window washers trapped on scaffolding at 1 WTC

2014-11-12T14:06:00-05:00

Two window washers' lives are literally hanging in the balance - they're stuck on scaffolding at 1 World Trade Center, officials said Wednesday afternoon. The shaky scaffolding, which is suspended around the 69th floor, was seen dangling at an unstable angle, according to images that surfaced of the scene. The workers are dangling at a 65-degree angle, according to NYPD counterterrorism czar John Miller.

Look back, move forward: Weekly News Round-Up for November 3, 2014

2014-11-10T18:55:00-05:00

Friday, November 7:

8,000 Glowing Balloons Recreate the Berlin Wall: A 10 mile chain of balloons will line the path where the Wall previously stood, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its demolition.
First Ever Chicago Architecture Biennial Taking Shape for 2015: The Biennial's theme of "The State of the Art of Architecture" (named after Stanley Tigerman's 1977 conference), is starting to take shape, and will include a photo exhibition on Chicago from Iwan Baan.

Thursday, November 6:

Massive Hollywood project sits atop quake fault: The California Geological Survey confirmed that the Millenium Hollywood skyscraper sits on top of an active fault, despite the fact that the developer's consultants find no evidence of an active fault in their analysis of the data. LA's Department of Building and Safety will ultimately determine whether the Millenium can be built.
Centre Pompidou To Open Design and Architecture Gallery: Upon the opening of its new photography gallery, the renowned Parisian...

One World Trade Center opens its doors; Condé Nast the first to move in

2014-11-03T13:28:00-05:00

“Condé Nast’s arrival puts a stiletto in the heart of the outdated notion that Lower Manhattan is stuffy and gray,” said Jessica Lappin, president of the Downtown Alliance, a local business organization. “They will accelerate the transformation that’s well underway and create additional demand-side pressure for more cool restaurants, art galleries and bars.”

Thirteen years after the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, and a fair share of construction delays, 1 World Trade Center is open for business. While the tower's 102 floors are currently only 58% occupied, mostly by media giant Condé Nast (of Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, and Bon Appétit, to name a few), so much has changed in Lower Manhattan since construction on the tower began that attracting new tenants doesn't seem like it'll be much of a problem. The New York Times points out that the neighborhood's population has exploded to 61,000, as investment banks left, and luxury retailers, media companies and tech firms moved in.

Fifteen years ago, when Condé Nast first moved to their former space in Times Square, the area's tone shifted: "Condé Nast's move from Madison Avenue in 1999 served as an imprimatur that Times Square was finally safe for white-collar workers. Soon came the lawyers, accountants, bankers and others who had avoided the seedy environ." Developer...

The New World Trade Center

2011-09-20T14:45:00-04:00

Piranha was commissioned by Silverstein Properties to create a short film depicting the completion of The New World Trade Center site. Piranha wrote, produced, art directed, filmed, and finished all vfx for this inspiring piece marking the 10th year anniversary of 9/11.

Piranha has shared with us a short film that they delivered on September 6th to Silverstein Properties that depicts the renaissance of downtown New York. It was presented at Tower 7 at a press event, in presence of Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Produced by Piranha NYC
Directed by Gaspard Giroud

The Tower That Could Have Been: Daniel Libeskind’s Award Winning WTC Design

2011-09-07T12:36:00-04:00

In February 2003, Daniel Libeskind was named the winning designer of the international contest to rebuild the World Trade Center. After eight years of collaboration, controversy, and the typical cast of characters in any real estate nightmare, the final product that will tower over Lower Manhattan is not, in fact, the design that won the hearts of New Yorkers.

Following years of delays, construction finally moving ahead at World Trade Center

2011-08-15T14:47:00-04:00

After years of controversy and delays, the 16-acre World Trade Center site is finally taking shape. Construction cranes and exposed steel frames dominate the site, towering over the National September 11 Memorial. Here is an update on the major projects