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Rafael Viñoly Architects resumes construction on renamed 125 Greenwich Street condo tower in Manhattan

2023-11-08T17:36:00-05:00

Construction is in full swing again on a Rafael Viñoly Architects-designed 88-story 125 Greenwich Street Manhattan residential project after resuming earlier this year following a four-year pause.

The news comes as the blog New York YIMBY reports scenes of added glass curtain panels and other facade elements amidst renewed construction at or near the crown of the 912-foot tower. The firm followed with an announcement this week stating the project will now be completed in 2024 and under the new monicker The Greenwich by Rafael Viñoly, honoring the legacy of their late founder, who passed away in March at the age of 78.

The restart was expected after February's announcement that developers had finally secured the $313 million needed to complete the project after it topped out in March of 2019.

Photo: Evan Joseph (provided)

Once complete, the parallelogram-shaped design will showcase his storied facility with structural engineering and what his son Román Viñoly describes in a press rel...

Rafael Viñoly passes away aged 78

2023-03-03T18:04:00-05:00

Rafael Viñoly has passed away at his home in New York City, according to reporting by the Spanish-language outlet El Pais.

The architect of many noteworthy international designs — including London’s 20 Fenchurch Street (aka the “Walkie Talkie Tower”) and the controversial 432 Park Avenue in Manhattan — reportedly succumbed to a brain aneurysm.

In a statement on the firm's website, his son Román said: "The firm’s partners and directors, many of whom have collaborated with him for decades, will extend his architectural legacy in the work we will continue to perform every day."

Rafael Viñoly at work. Image via Archinect's 2017 employment feature “All experience will have some form of relevance”: How to get a job at Rafael Viñoly Architects

Viñoly will be remembered for working across a variety of different project types and scales, authoring award-winning designs that captured the public’s attention in addition to the ire of critics while experimenting with scale and materiality in rel...

Rafael Viñoly is hiring architects to work on the National Medal of Honor Museum

2022-09-07T11:54:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an open opportunity for an Architectural & Campus Planner at Payette, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore a role for an Intermediate Designer for the National Medal of Honor Museum at Rafael Viñoly Architects.

The role, situated in Arlington, Texas, asks for an architect with a minimum of five years' experience, preferably in the design and construction of museums.

National Medal of Honor Museum by Rafael Viñoly Architects

Why the role interests us

We first reported on the National Medal of Honor Museum project back in 2019, when Viñoly was named as one of four firms shortlisted for the commission. One year later, in October 2020, we were given our first glimpse at Viñoly’s winning scheme, defined by a large mass of steel suspended on five pillars. Now, the firm’s latest search for construction site-based architects signals the next step in the project’s realization ahead of its 2024 completion date.

The scheme is ...

No more broken windows: Rafael Viñoly’s faulty courthouse building is getting worse by the day

2022-02-22T18:00:00-05:00

When it opened in 2008, the loftily named Bronx Hall of Justice was billed as the crown jewel of New York’s court system — the biggest courthouse in the state, sheathed in glass and housing enough courtrooms to handle dozens of criminal and civil cases each day. All these years later, the verdict is that it’s more like a broken-down jalopy.

Numerous problems including flooding, failed fire alarms, shattered glass windows that appear out of nowhere, and floor collapses stemming from a built-over underground stream have befallen the Rafael Viñoly-designed Bronx Hall of Justice for more than a decade. The courthouse building has still not been granted its official certificate of occupancy by the city’s Department of Buildings, although an official with the agency did make it clear the building was safe and that the process will be completed as soon as five “mostly minor” code violations are addressed.

Until then, the DOB has to continue issuing 90-day temporary certificates, the most recent of which expired on New Year’s Eve. The only thing holding up this end of things is a dispute between the federal Office of Court Administration (OCA), which keeps an office in the building, and the city, on whom the OCA claims the sole responsibility for repairs falls.

“Our history with this building goes back to its opening. While i...

Supertall swaying could soon be a thing of the past

2021-09-28T20:18:00-04:00

Although far from soothing, advances in materials science and construction technology, along with experience, are starting to help residents’ day-to-day comfort levels climb along with buildings’ heights. Experts are constantly refining ideal structural shapes, masses, and weights, as well as more obscure features like the multiton machines known as tuned mass dampers, which are designed to limit a building’s sway.

Residents of Rafael Vinoly’s billion dollar 432 Park tower have begun to pursue legal remedies against the property developers over the building’s annoying sway and a host of other abject failures. Case studies, in addition to advancements in building science could mean a future with fewer problems. Bloomberg CityLab has more on the nauseating lessons of supertall developments here.

Rafael Viñoly Architects unveil renderings of the new National Medal of Honor Museum

2020-10-21T14:34:00-04:00

Rafael Viñoly Architects have unveiled the first renderings of the National Medal of Honor Museum, one year after finalists were announced. The Museum is dedicated to the commemoration and preservation of the stories of more than 3,500 recipients of the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest medal for valor in combat.

Located in Arlington, Texas, the new facility will sit on a five-acre site and include 25,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, an education center, conference and event space, and an outdoor amphitheater.

At the Museum's main building, a large mass of steel sits suspended on five pillars, giving it an illusory look of levitation. Each pillar represents one of the traditional branches of the Armed Services.

An oculus penetrates the center of the floating steel volume, bringing light into the space while offering views to the sky above. Two spiral ramps encircle the oculus and lead to the main exhibition spaces where the stories of those fallen will be told thro...

Rafael Viñoly to renovate former National Academy building in NYC

2020-02-12T15:30:00-05:00

One of the Upper East Side buildings that was once home to the National Academy of Design will soon get a starchitect-designed revamp. At a hearing this week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve a Rafael Viñoly-designed plan to renovate one of the museum’s former holdings, with some modifications.

Plagued by financial troubles in recent years, the National Academy had sold, among other properties on Fifth Avenue, its historic building on East 89th Street to Salon 94 art gallery in 2016

"The owner of the gallery, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, hired Viñoly to restore the landmarked building’s facade, replace windows and doors, enlarge some areas of the structure, and add two stories to the roof area of the building," reports Curbed New York.

Existing building (left) and proposed expansion (right). Image courtesy of NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Click here to take a look at Viñoly's detailed renovation and expansion proposal which the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve this week.

Images surface of Facebook's potential new tower in Manhattan designed by Rafael Viñoly

2019-06-05T17:44:00-04:00

One of the largest potential office buildings in New York City has long been in the works on the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania, at 401 Seventh Avenue, with renderings for a soaring supertall first released last decade [...] the latest on Vornado’s newest vision for the site, which would place Facebook within a massive 2.8-million-square-foot tower designed by Rafael Vinoly, dubbed “Penn15” in the brochure.

Renderings of the 1,400-foot structure paint a new picture for Facebook's new office building plan. It's been stated that "Facebook has already publicly committed to One Madison Avenue in NoMad, so this ideation may already be moribund." Despite the recent commitment placed by Facebook, Vornado Realty Trust visualizes a new possible plan. The company toys with the idea of a new configuration for the 401 Seventh Avenue site in Midtown Manhattan. The creation of another mega skyscraper lets Vornado join the likes of Related's Hudson Yards and Brookfield's Manhattan West in new redevelopment ventures.

Rendering of Facebook's "possible" supertall taken from brochure. Image © Vornado

The new "Facebook" tower has been dubbed "Penn15". Users on Twitter have already shared their reactions to the recent announcement and name choice linking it to an all too noticeable innuendo. Renderings show emphasis on open floor plans and a large number of outdoor spaces covered in trees. "Variable stacke...

Rafael Viñoly's Lower Manhattan residential tower 125 Greenwich Street tops out at 912 feet

2019-03-13T18:53:00-04:00

Above the Financial District, 125 Greenwich Street rises as a slender 88-story residential skyscraper. Designed by Rafael Vinoly and developed by Bizzi & Partners and Vector Group, the 912-foot tall glass and concrete structure has topped out. The 273 residential units are being marketed by Douglas Elliman, while the interiors are being designed by March & White.

Certainly no stranger to building tall structures in the borough, 125 Greenwich Street (also know as 22 Thames Street) is the first skyscraper in Lower Manhattan designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects.

View this post on Instagram

Today marks the official topping-out of @125greenwichstreet’s 912-foot tall superstructure! This construction milestone was commemorated with a special ceremony on-site this morning with @RVA_NY’s Rafael Viñoly, developer Davide Bizzi of Bizzi & Partners, and their special guests. The 88-floor super-slender residential tower is located in Manhattan’s Financial District and will offer 273 residences with a unique amenities space located on the top three floors of the tower. Construction continues with the installation of the curtainwall with unique rounded glass corners and the tower is set to be completed in 2020. Images: @weareoptimist #architecture #design #supertall #highrise #construction #engineering #nyc #rafaelvinoly #realestate

A post...

What we can learn from Rafael Viñoly

2018-11-22T10:13:00-05:00

When architecture is bad, people have to suffer with it forever, practically—about 70 years or so. I strongly believe in the idea that public space should be incorporated in buildings of a certain magnitude, and buildings should make a contribution to the city. An architect needs to think about environmental impact, too—something that mitigates the impact of the building.

According to the 74 year old architecture icon, Rafael Viñoly knows his way around a successful career. However, what can we really learn from this design virtuoso? In a recent interview with Mansion Global, Viñoly shares his take on what it means to be "good architect." Much has changed in the architecture realm since he first opened up his practice Rafael Viñoly Architects in 1983. However, one thing is for certain, the path to becoming a good architect is one filled with responsibility.

Not shy to any design challenge his approach to design ranges from mega skyscrapers to convention centers, even the occasional laboratory. For the Uruguayan architect designing a successful building comes down to how it will redefine its place. "The best architecture redefines how things are going to be, rather than repeating what has been accepted, or what is already part of the norm. And you can create amazing objects, but if they’re not functional, they don’t work. A building also has to be str...

Bullet-proof Upper East Side townhouse designed by Rafael Viñoly lists for $50M

2018-09-25T18:42:00-04:00

Rafael Viñoly is best known for designing 432 Park, the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere, but he makes time for private homes, too–at least when they have headline-making features like a bullet-proof glass facade. His firm was first tapped to design this Upper East Side townhouse by Argentinian billionaire Eduardo Eurnekian to serve as his home and U.S. headquarters, but it looks like he instead decided to list the finished product for $50 million.

$700M proposal calls for NYC’s first soccer stadium designed by Rafael Viñoly and 550 affordable apartments in the South Bronx

2018-04-17T17:19:00-04:00

New York City could be getting its first soccer stadium if a proposal for the project led by Related Companies gets chosen by officials. A partnership made up of developers Related and Somerset Partners, along with the Major League Soccer team, New York City Football Club, has submitted a plan to bring a 26,000-seat soccer stadium designed by Rafael Viñoly, over 550 units of affordable housing and a waterfront park to the South Bronx. According to YIMBY, the project, estimated to cost $700 million, would rise on the site of the Harlem River Yards, a 13-acre parcel in Mott Haven operated by the Empire State Development Corporation.

Via Rafael Viñoly Architects

The stadium would be located next to the site that is already undergoing development by Somerset and Chetrit Group; they recently sold the five-acre parcel to Brookfield Properties for $165 million. The original project includes building six structures of housing, containing more than 1,200 units.

Via Rafael Viñoly Architects

Sourc...

The world’s most influential architects and commentators will discuss ‘Performance’ at this year’s World Architecture Festival

2017-09-15T12:22:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by World Architecture Festival

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the World Architecture Festival has revealed its speaker line up for the 2017 event taking place at the Arena Berlin for the second time from 15-17 November.

A collection of world-class architects will come together to speak at the event including Pierre de Meuron, Alison Brooks, Rafael Viñoly and Charles Jencks.

This year’s programme responds to the Festival’s theme, ‘Performance’, and will include speeches, discussions and debates examining the topic of performance from the perspectives of housing, public spaces, festivals, cultural institutions and new technologies.

Program highlights include:

Performance as space, time and architecture

Rafael Viñoly is a former super-jury chair and keynote speaker at WAF
How does the concept of performance apply in his varied work?
How projects range from the Tokyo Forum complex including a temporary mobile performance space he is designing in ...

First look at Rafael Viñoly's tower for Ritz Carlton NYC

2017-08-18T10:59:00-04:00

EB-5 filings show that Ritz-Carlton New York has plans to build the “Ritz-Carlton New York (Madison Park)” at Broadway and East 28th Street. Building permits filed in January 2016 call for a 40-floor, 580-foot tall tower designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, which will contain 164 units, several eating/drinking establishments, a club lounge on the 29th floor and a rooftop bar on the 32nd.

Viñoly's leafy design will join "hotel row" where one can already find the Ace, Nomad, and Flatiron hotels. A Virgin Hotel expected to open in 2019.

London’s Walkie Talkie Tower, previously titled "UK's worst building of the year", sells for a record $1.7 billion

2017-07-27T12:46:00-04:00

The price, a record for a single U.K. office property, is remarkable given that the building will face ongoing maintenance costs, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts including Tim Leckie wrote in a client note. LKK, which sells Chinese herbal medicines, paid a 13 percent premium to book value for the property even as Land Securities’s shares trade at a 26 percent discount, he said.

Land Securities Group Plc and Canary Wharf Group Plc agreed to sell the Rafael Viñoly-designed Walkie Talkie for 1.28 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) to Hong Kong-based LKK Health Products Group, founded in 1992 by the Lee Kum Kee family, whose primary business sells a variety of condiments.

Asian investors have poured into London’s office market in the year since the Brexit vote, capitalizing on the weak pound to buy towers for record-high prices. Hong Kong real estate developer C C Land Holdings paid 1.15 billion pounds for the Cheesegrater tower in May.

Initiated by Donald Trump, the Far West Side of Manhattan Development is Almost Finished

2017-06-23T12:33:00-04:00

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 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.

Waterfront Towers Reel In Unusual Loan Deal

2016-11-29T12:10:00-05:00

Most of the foundations are completed for the three buildings, which will have rental apartments on the lower floors and condominiums on the upper ones. The partnership tapped Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, who designed the slender ultraluxury condo skyscraper at 432 Park Ave., Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC to design the glass, stone and metal towers, which range from 34 to 38 stories tall.

With New York's Waterline Square, three architects are better than one

2016-11-17T13:23:00-05:00

Three leading starchitecture firms – Rafael Viñoly Architects, Richard Meier & Partners Architects and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates – have joined forces to collaborate on Waterline Square, a new residential development occupying five acres of land on one of the Upper West Side's last remaining waterfront development sites along the Hudson River.

Rafael Viñoly admits 432 Park ‘has a couple of screw-ups’

2016-05-09T12:13:00-04:00

Critics of the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere, 432 Park Avenue, are quick to try to bring the tower down from its 1,400-foot pedestal. And strangely, its very own architect is the latest jump on the bandwagon. Rafael Viñoly admitted at a Douglas Elliman talk last week that his creation “has a couple of screw-ups,” namely the window framing, which he blames on developer Harry Macklowe, and the tiny issue of “the interior design and layout.”

Previously:

Take a look at Rafael Viñoly's new circular bridge in Uruguay

2016-01-21T13:13:00-05:00

Why build a straightforward bridge for an unremarkable sum when the same bridge could be built as a circle for vast amounts of money? A new bridge spanning (or circumnavigating) Laguna Garzón, a coastal lagoon in southeastern Uruguay, poses just that question. [...] At a glance, it’s the sort of ridiculousness that you might expect of a bridge in London. In fact, there’s a perfectly good functional explanation for it.

"The concept of the Puente Laguna Garzón was to transform a traditional vehicular crossing into an event that reduces the speed of the cars, to provide an opportunity to enjoy panoramic views of an amazing landscape and at the same time create a pedestrian place in the center," the architect explained the unusual bridge concept.

Other Viñoly-related news stories on Archinect:

New Rafael Viñoly skyscraper will be tallest in Chicago's South Loop

2015-09-24T13:33:00-04:00

Designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects, which also designed the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business in Hyde Park, the 792-unit building would be the first of three that Crescent Heights plans just south of the park. [...] Crescent Heights has become one of the busiest apartment buyers in downtown Chicago, recently paying $126 million for a 298-unit apartment building in the South Loop. It also owns 160 rental condominiums in Walton on the Park, a Gold Coast high-rise.

Proposed 30-acre green roof would be the world's largest

2015-09-09T14:16:00-04:00

A South Bay developer is reimagining an outdated Cupertino mall by building the world’s largest green roof on top of it. The Vallco Shopping Mall, bought by Sand Hill Property Company for $316 million last year, is destined to become a 30-acre elevated public park that will connect shops to offices, trails and vineyards. The $3 billion design was inspired by “starchitect” Rafael Viñoly, who is working alongside Olin Landscape Architects to replace most [of] the Valleco Shopping Mall...

A Trashcan Inspired the Design of Rafael Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue

2015-06-01T08:45:00-04:00

Most ideas usually end up in the trash but few ideas are inspired by the basket that holds them. A recent discovery has revealed that...432 Park Avenue, was actually inspired by a Josef Hoffmann-designed wastebasket released in 1905. The revelation came via a talk held last December at the Cornell Center for Real Estate and Finance where Harry Macklowe, the co-developer of the supertall, told the crowd that the repository was an “important touchstone” for the 1,396-foot-high design.

Starchitect Rafael Vinoly to Design a 10-Story Meatpacking District Building

2015-05-26T13:18:00-04:00

Look out—not up—because there’s a new low-rise Rafael Vinoly-designed building coming our way. The architect mastermind behind the city’s tallest residential tower, 432 Park Avenue, has just been chosen to to design a comparatively demure ten-story office-and-retail building in the Meatpacking District, reports The Real Deal. The new addition is being developed by Vornado Realty Trust and Aurora Capital Associates and is located on the former site of Prince Lumber at 61 Ninth Avenue.

Rafael Viñoly's Edward M. Kennedy Institute set to open its doors in Boston

2015-02-09T15:09:00-05:00

When it opens next month in Boston, the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate will be aiming to restore respect for Congress at a time when rancor and partisanship have seriously damaged its reputation. [...] The 68,000-square-foot institute, designed by the architect Rafael Viñoly, is on the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts and has a 99-year lease on the site.

'Walkie Scorchie’ building given permanent sunshade

2014-05-16T14:13:00-04:00

The Walkie Talkie – or 20 Fenchurch Street – became known as the Walkie Scorchie because of its apparent ability to bounce heat from the sun on to buildings in the next street in the City of London. Yesterday, the developer, Land Securities, said that it had received planning permission for a “brise soleil” sunshade to be attached to the building to replace a temporary system erected last summer. Work is due to start this month.

Rafael Viñoly-designed "Walkie Talkie" skyscraper melts car with light reflections

2013-09-03T12:29:00-04:00

Developers have promised urgent action to “cover up” the Walkie Talkie skyscraper in the City after an ultra-bright light reflected from the building melted a Jaguar car on the streets below. The 525ft, £200 million building has been renamed the “Walkie Scorchie” after its distinctive concave surfaces reflected a dazzling beam of light which blinded passers-by and has now caused extensive damage to vehicles parked beneath it.

Superscraper 432 Park Avenue is Officially On the Market

2013-03-20T13:22:00-04:00

It's the first official day of spring, and that means this year's crop of new developments is about to start hitting the market. They'll have a lot to live up to, because the season is starting off with a big one: 432 Park Avenue! The city's—nay, the western hemisphere's—future tallest residential building is now available. Or at least, two-thirds of the units are.

The Rafael Vinoly-designed superscraper at 432 Park Avenue -- which, when finished, will be the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere -- has officially kicked-off sales. Prices for what's currently available? $20 million to $82.5 million.

Architect Rafael Viñoly reflects on his past career and current projects

2011-09-16T18:38:00-04:00

Despite the huge workload, and the high profile of the buildings, I find him in a restrained mood. “The overall situation,” he shakes his head, “is such a mess, it’s frightening. I’m going to be alone in the middle of the ocean for six days. To reflect.” But if that makes him sound miserable, he’s not. Just reflective.

Rafael Viñoly Takes The Stage

2011-08-26T19:13:00-04:00

Leonardo da Vinci was an architect, painter, musician, and more. Corb was an architect and watchmaker. Recently, we've seen celebrity designers David Rockwell, Santiago Calatrava, and Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron take an interest in set design for theater. And most recently, Rafael Viñoly, one of the world's most renowned architects today, takes center stage, yet again, at Bard SummerScape for the Festival's first fully-staged production of Richard Strauss's opera, Die Liebe der Danae.