For the third time in this already record-breaking week, Foster + Partners has revealed images of a recently-completed commercial tower after the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the firm’s long-awaited 425 Park Avenue project was held earlier today in Manhattan.
The tapering 897-foot design begins at street level with a 45-foot grand lobby that extends to the first of two setbacks which work to separate the volume into thirds, topped by a 38-foot penthouse floor and three ornamental illuminated aluminum fins. Each section is divided by two triple-height diagrid floors, with the uppermost hosting The Diagrid Club restaurant and lounge operated by prominent Alsatian chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Another two-story, 14,000-square-foot restaurant is located in the tower’s podium and features a 24-foot Larry Poons commission, while its opposite comes complete with a Yayoi Kusama installation and curated meditation spaces contributed by filmmaker David Lynch’s eponymous foundation.
The interior office spaces rely on flexible floorplates that allow for a highly-collaborative and column-free space, which in turn allows for an influx of natural light, helping to create what developer David W. Levinson called “the ultimate office environment in both form and function.”
“425 Park has been a labor of love nearly two decades in the making,” his colleague, L&L President Robert Lapidus, said of its decade-long development. “From the outset of this project, we were laser-focused on creating an holistic experience that would attract, motivate, and excite the world’s most innovative and creative people. Those attributes, which were aspirational at the time, have become absolutely essential today.”
As the first full-block development to grace Midtown’s historic Plaza District in over half a century, the project comes with an added significance, an element Foster himself noted when describing his latest $1 billion-plus design.
“425 Park Avenue celebrates its historic context and the restrained elegance of its landmark neighbours, while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of workplace design and reflecting the contemporary spirit of the city,” he offered finally. “The building’s architectural form and structural expression are inextricably linked, providing it with a distinctive identity. The floors with external terraces are the first of their kind on Park Avenue, creating a permeable and healthy working environment.”
6 Comments
damn, that entrance/sidewalk condition is abysmal and completely barren.
this whole thing is filled with so much newspeak:
"The interior office spaces rely on flexible floorplates that allow for a highly-collaborative and column-free space"
aka unimpeded surveillance; i'm always tired of those pesky columns getting in the way of my collaborating!
“425 Park Avenue celebrates its historic context and the restrained
elegance of its landmark neighbours, while simultaneously pushing the
boundaries of workplace design and reflecting the contemporary spirit of the city”
honoring the past while looking to the future- brilliant!
Roche's Knights of Columbus building also hinges on a similar open floor plan and that was long before the advent of surveillance culture.
surveillance "culture" was around long before the 50's my friend.. see foucault
The Foster presentation that won the commission was a masterpiece in speaking the same language as the client. While Koolhaas brandished Delirious New York, Schumacher effed up the building data, and RSH+P seemed embarrassed by their design, Foster spoke to the developer - rattling off real estate returns, square footage, zoning pointers, and all kinds of numbers to persuade the client.
OMA had the sexiest design of the quartet but it was never meant to be even if Koolhaas had dialled down the rhetoric. Double curved glass at that scale would have been fine in China or the Middle East but in NYC? Foster delivered more usable GFA at a lower cost - and still gave the developer the iconic silhouette he wanted.
The project is nothing more than a demonstration of Foster's ability to design for a billionaire clientele. It updates the Park Avenue glass box by raising the interior ceiling heights and doing away with anything like a public space where non-rich people might creep in. Green spaces are tenants-only and raised above the streets. 425 Park is a hyper-luxury building that doesn't serve the "most innovative and creative people", just the richest and any workers they may want to have around.
To be fair, it is the de facto global HQ of Citadel now - one of the largest hedge funds/quant shops/market makers around. Innovative as far as financial instruments goes and a massive money maker but not the kind of civic-minded space the developer's PR makes it out to be.
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