Archinect - News

30 Rock's Top of the Rock space debuts crowning Skylift observation deck

2024-10-07T11:32:00-04:00

One of New York's top tourist draws, Rockefeller Center’s Top of the Rock experiential space, has opened a brand new attraction called Skylift. Standing 30 feet above the roof deck on the 70th floor, the platform offers panoramic views of the city from 900 feet and is illuminated by 636 meters (about 2,086 feet) of LED lights. The project was designed by THG Creative, who previously designed the One World Observatory, and approved by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

Image courtesy THG Creative

Image courtesy Tishman Speyer

Handel's 58-story ATX Tower tops out in Austin

2024-07-22T18:39:00-04:00

The forthcoming ATX Tower project in Austin from Handel Architects in partnership with Page celebrated its topping-out ceremony last week. The mixed-use, 425,000-square-foot design includes 369 high-end apartments and over 100,000 square feet of workspaces in a distinctive 58-story silhouette that captures the scale and material character of its adjoining neighbors near Republic Square.

The building will open its doors to occupants by early February 2025. The interiors for ATX Tower were created by New York-based INC Architecture & Design.

Image courtesy Ryan Companies

It will be followed by another mixed-use project — HKS's (scaled-back) Wilson Tower — and the 74-story The Waterline high-rise from KPF, which is on track to becoming the state's tallest.

Both Austin's downtown residential and office real estate markets have experienced downturns in the last year-plus, posing a considerable threat to the formerly breakneck pace of development that has transpired with the continued inc...

Büro Ole Scheeren realizes The Axiom high-rise design in Shanghai

2024-04-02T15:37:00-04:00

Büro Ole Scheeren has announced the completion of their latest high-rise design in Shanghai, called The Axiom. The 918-foot, 49-story tower is the first of two that will eventually form the heart of a mixed-use corporate campus known as The Springs on a central site in the Yangpu district for developer Tishman Speyer.

The design is punctuated midway by a striking offset structural core, which, according to the firm, is unique to just 3% of the 500 tallest buildings in the world.

Image: © Büro Ole Scheeren

Founder Ole Scheeren describes: “The Axiom is an emblem of the innovation that is now synonymous with Shanghai and forms an elegant urban landmark as the gateway to Yangpu District. Designed as a strategic hybrid of functionalism and iconicity, the twin towers represent the fluidity and dynamism of the future-oriented businesses they will accommodate.”

Image: © Büro Ole Scheeren

Rising from a shared podium base called the Culture Gate that connects to the surrounding development’s ...

Harvard's new Enterprise Research Campus breaks ground in Boston

2023-11-14T18:59:00-05:00

A master plan project at Harvard University from Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, SCAPE, and Utile has begun construction in the Boston neighborhood of Allston.

The 36-acre Enterprise Research Campus (or ERC) will coalesce an area across the Charles River from the Ivy League campus into a new multi-use innovation district with designs from MVRDV, Moody Nolan, and Marlon Blackwell, in addition to the university's first above-ground mass timber structures from Studio Gang.

Once complete, its initial two phases will entail 14 acres of redeveloped land reserved for offices, labs, conference center, hotel, residential component, and open green space.

Image courtesy SCAPE

The effort was inaugurated in 2018 in the interest of creating a "gateway to a collaborative community," which is Boston's well-known consortium of knowledge industries.

Studio Gang founding principal and partner, Jeanne Gang, said her team’s plan has "provided a framework for a vibrant and inclusive public realm that bring...

MVRDV sets its feet in Boston with a two-tower residential design near Harvard University

2023-11-02T14:54:00-04:00

A new residential project in Boston from MVRDV and co-architect Moody Nolan will deliver much-needed housing accommodations for the burgeoning Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) district on the southern edge of Harvard University in Allston, Massachusetts.

The scheme remade a former industrial site located across from the Harvard Business School on Western Avenue into a new urban district with a 343-unit housing component (25% of which is considered ‘affordable’), new green spaces, and areas reserved for local small businesses.

Developed by Tishman Speyer using a master plan from Studio Gang and Henning Larsen, the district will serve as an innovation center with added laboratories, an office component, hotel, and a new conference center for the university. MVRDV says it will be sited in the middle of the plan, offering a connection to the Greenway, a two-acre open space linking to the Charles River. Local mainstays Utile, Inc. are also contributing to the master plan's landscape des...

New York selects six Empire Building Challenge partners to boost the state's energy efficiency

2022-10-10T09:00:00-04:00

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has just announced the addition of six new strategic partners to the $50 million Empire Building Challenge in aims of enhancing the state’s stock of energy-efficient buildings.

The newly-added partners will be tasked with developing "highly repeatable" solutions to reducing carbon emissions in the heating and hot water systems of roughly 5.6 million square feet of high-rise buildings statewide that are included in the Challenge.

Brookfield Properties and Tishman Speyer lead the groups included in the program’s expansion, which now covers some 125 million square feet of commercial and multifamily properties and over 1,500 units of housing. The new interests selected by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) include:

Amalgamated Housing Corporation, who will team with EN-POWER GROUP and Egg Geo on Tower I & Tower II, 3965 - 3975 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx.
Boston Properties, who pairs with Jaros, Baum, & Bolles Consulting...

NYC greenlights 30 Rock's new 'Skylift' tourist attraction

2022-04-29T18:39:00-04:00

One of the world’s most recognizable addresses is about to get a new look after New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) granted full approval to a plan that would transform the iconic 30 Rockefeller Plaza into Midtown’s latest tourist destination.

The first of the new Top of the Rock attractions proposed by the building’s operator Tishman Speyer is the experiential 69th-floor “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” ride that allows visitors to experience 'a day on the job' of a typical period construction crew based on the iconic 1932 photograph by Charles C. Ebbets.

Image courtesy Tishman Speyer

"Lunch atop a Skyscraper" by Charles C. Ebbets, 1932.

The next floor will feature the “Skylift” observation deck with panoramic views of the city punctuated by a glowing kinetic globe that’s programmed to change colors with the arrival of each new visitor.

Additionally, the ground floor and mezzanine level will be transformed to allow for improved visitor circulation through the ticketing ...

See the new observation deck and rooftop ride proposed for 30 Rock

2021-09-13T20:47:00-04:00

One of the city’s most popular observation decks could be getting a facelift. Tishman Speyer Properties has proposed several enhancements to the Top of the Rock deck at landmarked 30 Rockefeller Plaza, including a rotating attraction that lets visitors recreate the iconic “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” photo, a kinetic globe, and a new viewing platform on the 70th floor. The proposal was recommended for approval by Manhattan Community Board 5 last week and will be heard by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday.

"Lunch atop a Skyscraper" experience. Rendering: Tishman Speyer

During last month’s community board meeting on landmarks, EB Kelly, the managing director at Tishman Speyer overseeing Rockefeller Center, called the proposal a “collection of enhancements” to the Top of the Rock experience that “lean into the history and magic of this special place.”

“With these changes, we’re looking to tell the story of Rockefeller Center in a new way that will bring people back to discove...

Developers Tishman Speyer launch affordable housing platform

2020-07-23T12:52:00-04:00

Development group Tishman Speyer has announced the creation of a new "affordable housing platform" within its organization designed to spur the development of new affordable housing projects across the New York City area.

Real Estate Weekly reports that Tishman Speyer has hired real estate executive Gary Rodney to "source opportunities to acquire, redevelop, and engage in ground-up construction of quality housing that is affordable to low- and middle-income New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs."

Rodney comes to Tishman Speyer after serving as Chairman of development firm CREA, LLC and after a previous run as President of the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), a key player in New York City's affordable housing market. The creation of this new affordable housing arm comes as the New York City region pushes to increase the number of affordable housing units developed across the area.

Studio Gang and Henning Larsen selected to design Harvard research center development

2019-12-19T17:18:00-05:00

The Harvard Allston Land Company (HALC) in Boston has selected a development team led by Tishman Speyer, Studio Gang, and Henning Larsen to create the first phase of a new research campus at Harvard University.

The proposed 36-acre Enterprise Research Campus, according to The Harvard Gazette, could bring a mix of laboratories, residences, and commercial uses to a former industrial rail yard situated in the town of Allston on the banks of the Charles River. Also included on the project team are design firm Utile and landscape architects SCAPE. The project team, as it happens, is powered by three woman-led offices: Mette Kynne Frandsen at Henning Larsen, Jeanne Gang at Studio Gang, and Kate Orff at SCAPE.

Phase one of the project measures 14 acres in size and has received initial regulatory approval for 900,000 square feet of new development from the Boston Planning and Development Agency. The plan for the district, which has not been wholly formalized, could unite research facilities...

MVRDV, Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, WORKac, and SCAPE design a new neighborhood for San Francisco

2019-10-17T16:30:00-04:00

A new neighborhood is coming to San Francisco's southern edge, where developers Tishman Speyer, the San Francisco Giants baseball team, and the Port of San Francisco are collaborating with a team of architects on a new 28-acre master plan for an existing surface parking lot and an underutilized waterfront.

For the masterplan, dubbed "Mission Rock," Studio Gang, MVRDV, Henning Larsen, and WORKac have come together as design architects to craft an approach that will bring a series of mid- and high-rise mixed-use buildings to the vacant site. Landscape architects SCAPE, Miller Company, and Min Design are providing landscape architecture services, including the redesign of a 5-acre waterfront park.

View of MVRDV's pixelated tower. Image courtesy of Binyan Studios.

Phase one of the project includes a 540-unit tower designed by MVRDV, in collaboration with Perry Architects, that will contain 550,000 square feet of retail uses spread out within a pair of shorter commercial buildings. The ...

Jeanne Gang reveals 51-story condo next to Downtown Brooklyn Macy’s

2018-04-09T17:31:00-04:00

Tishman Speyer released on Monday the first renderings for its new luxury residential tower in Downtown Brooklyn, 11 Hoyt. Designed by Jeanne Gang’s architecture firm, Studio Gang, the 51-story, 480-unit condominium project will offer a variety of apartment layouts, with more than 190 different floor plans. The tower’s rippling exterior seems to borrow elements used in two of Gang’s Chicago projects, the Aqua Tower and the Vista Tower, which is currently under construction. The project will rise next to the Macy’s on Fulton Street, which is currently undergoing renovations by Tishman Speyer, who are also planning a 10-story office tower on top of the store. Hill West Architects is the architect of record.

“11 Hoyt is destined to become Downtown Brooklyn’s most desirable new address,” Rob Speyer, the CEO of Tishman Speyer, said in a statement. “We are honored to collaborate with such a talented group of globally-minded and innovative design partners to launch our first ground up cond...