A generation ago, the New York skyline was a global icon, shaped more or less like a suspension bridge stretched between the Empire State and the Twin Towers, making it possible to, say, pop out of some unfamiliar subway station, gaze up toward the clouds and orient oneself along the skyline’s north-south axis. Today, the skyline is vastly more complex, far-flung and difficult to picture, and it’s common to hear complaints that the city has lost its bearings. — The New York Times
The addition of Meganom and SLCE’s 860-foot 262 Fifth Avenue tower to New York’s accidental skyline also raises questions about legislating ‘view sheds’ and historic sightlines around the city, Michael Kimmelman writes. The city currently only has one protected vista overlooking the Financial District from Brooklyn Heights. Developers have famously been manipulating the local zoning code governing allowable height in order to receive approvals, an issue Kimmelman has preached about in earnest for the past decade.
“It’s time to rethink our assumptions,” preservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos tells him, before adding his opinion that regulations would “guarantee a collective experience, a sense of shared identity and civic meaning, which can bind New Yorkers across generations and centuries.”
Construction of 262 Fifth Avenue is expected to wrap up by the end of 2024.
6 Comments
This speaks to cities being a work of art, iconic, and worth preserving or at least making sure it doesn't change in ways that detract from the character that makes its citizens and tourists like it.
Fear of the pencil towers (from an aesthetic concern) doesn't consider that they are using the zoning bulk of the adjacent buildings. There are only a (relative) few that can be made, unless the area is re-zoned again for increased FAR, which is where citizen input can be made.
Most beloved icons of today were sore thumbs in the past. Rockefeller Center was a giant among dwarves when it was built. Now there are towers all around it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The precedent.
You beat me to the punch. I was going to put this up.
And comparison is invited.
Kimmelman and his bureaucratic urbanist ilk lack the design expertise to understand multiple scales.
His shtick of complaining about the result but ignoring the building that could have been preserved is incoherent. Just like he complained about Hudson Yards but said nothing when the design process gave multiple better options. Maybe zoning needs to be revamped to recognize different variables than just size and views.
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