New York Tower - 55th Street & 8th Avenue -75 Storeys 1,000ft. by Coop Himmelbau

[Stern]

Derek gave us the heads up...


Rumor of a new twisting hotel tower going up on 55th Street & 8th Avenue by Austrian firm coop himmelblau (www.coop-himmelblau.at).
It sounds like this site (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=150004&postcount=102).
A piece of an interview posted on SkyscraperCity (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=14872756#post14872756)...

F.Z.: What is the project are you working on at the moment?

W.D.P: At the moment we are working on a highrise in New York.

F.Z.: Would you like to explain this project?

W.D.P: It is located right next to the Norman Foster building on the Eighth Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street and it will have a twisted shape, it's a hotel and apartments, with a a very distinctive appearance. I would like to make a statement: architecture now is an occupied territory, occupied by the building industry, by the business clients, by money. An architect today has to decide whether he will go into the resistance or will be a player, will be on the side of the money. I think that good architecture can only exist when the architect decides to go in the resistance.


It's also mentioned on Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coop_Himmelbau
Hotel - 55th Street & 8th Avenue, New York City (proposed)


Coop Himmelbau gives Nouvel some competiton...
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/8629/tower6pr5.jpg

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8615/nytoweruo3.jpg

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1786/tower2ya6.jpg

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2357/tower3nm4.jpg

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1221/tower4ti5.jpg

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5041/tower5ht6.jpg

What a way to start the new year!

[alonzo-ny]

oh baby!

[Jasonik]

Vive la résistance!

[krulltime]

Wow I am so amaze by this greatness of news! I just came back from my trip and then this is going to happen in my wonderful city.

[krulltime]

Is this that site where it is already clear and where the Hearst Corp had their headquarters?

[Hamilton]

hmmm....their website says "2006" for the date on this puppy, and gives no status update (such as "In Planning" or "Under Construction" or "Competition") like it does for the firm's other current projects.

Don't know exactly what to read into the architect's statement on architect-developer relations, either.
I hope this is still viable, but i'm not convinced this one is gonna happen.:confused:

[lofter1]

Me thinks it's a pipe dream ... unless Zuckerman is going to build it.

This image (looking north) clearly shows this new building rising on the EAST side of Eighth Avenue (the TW Center is on the other side of the Avenue), and thereby not THIS site (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=150004&postcount=102) -- but more likely a scheme for the lot at the site linked below (note that the 46,422 sf = ~ 200' x 250', which is roughly the size of this \/ lot (http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobsQueryByNumberServlet?passdocnumber=1&passjobnumber=104870533&requestid=4)) :

250 W. 55th St. at Eighth Ave - 1M sf Office Tower (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8287&highlight=55th) ...

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8615/nytoweruo3.jpg

[MidtownGuy]

Me thinks it's a pipe dream

You just gave me blue balls.

[londonlawyer]

Me thinks it's a pipe dream ... unless Zuckerman is going to build it....

I agree that it's a pipe dream. Also, that cheap SOB Zuckerman wouldn't spend the money needed to build this masterpiece.

[antinimby]

Pfft...he'd rather drown in that money than spend it building something as nice as this.

Anyway, it's hard to get excited or happy for anything today after hearing about the recladding news over at the Newsweek building. Totally depressed me today. :(

Moinian is slimeball.

[londonlawyer]

...
Anyway, it's hard to get excited or happy for anything today after hearing about the recladding news over at the Newsweek building. Totally depressed me today....

I had the very same thought.

P.S.: I agree re: Monian.

[alonzo-ny]

Sigh, i got excited for a second.

[BrooklynRider]

This is becoming a city of dreamers. Big difference between dreamers and visionaries. Visionaries have a plan of action and let little get in their way. Dreamers meander and never get anything done.

[Skylimitone]

One word, Chicago.

[londonlawyer]

I have spent a lot of time in Chicago, and it lacks the sea of great old buildings that make NY -- not to mention, the people are extremely unsophisticated and annoying.

P.S.: It would be nice if Barnett used this design for the site across from Carnegie Hall.

[MidtownGuy]

it lacks the sea of great old buildings that make NY

But that 'sea' of great old buildings is diminishing every day. How much longer will New York be able to make that claim, when everything is being torn down or covered in a mummy case of glass?

[londonlawyer]

I disagree. While it's sickening to see destruction caused by the likes of Macklowe, Moinian, etc., the overwhelming majority of Manhattan (excluding Midtown) consists of spectacular, old buildings.

[MidtownGuy]

But is it infinite? and what is the threshold at which the new crap visually overwhelms the old? It is starting to happen already.

Here's a pretend analogy:
I inherit 10 million dollars from my grandparents, in GOLD. It seems like so much at first! I start cashing in and spending it recklessly, throwing it all around. Instead of saving much, or keeping much of the gold which always has value over time, I just keep cashing it in and spending it. I mean, it is so much, after all! Will I eventually go broke? Yes. And when all the gold is gone, and all I have is some paper money whose value is degrading over time, sooner or later my portfolio isn't going to look so good. And I won't have much of anything to leave my children.
I should have saved, I should have invested, I should have conserved. Acted wisely. Now all I can do is look at fading pictures of the 'good old days' when I was rolling in it, and I realize my shortsighted stupidity. Of course, I had to survive, but I could have been much wiser. It was fun while it lasted I guess.
The architectural legacy of Manhattan may seem vast, but it most certainly is not infinite.

[Derek2k3]

Madison Equities planned to break ground on a hotel last summer before they sold the site to Zuckerman. I guess this was it. Even sadder is the box that will rise there instead.

[londonlawyer]

I agree.

[Derek2k3]

I have spent a lot of time in Chicago, and it lacks the sea of great old buildings that make NY -- not to mention, the people are extremely unsophisticated and annoying.


That unsophisticated argument just sounds like snobbery. I find Chicago quite impressive given that is less than half the size of NY. Their new towers and building policies are far more progressive and they don't rely on the greatness of their architectural past as an excuse to now put up garbage.

The tower reminds me of this proposed Chicago hotel (taller than ESB) that, unlike this, will probably be built...

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/807/waldorf6ab2.jpg
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=138309

[londonlawyer]

That unsophisticated argument just sounds like snobbery.....

I find it amusing that you would call anything that I have to say "unsophisticated." It is a legitimate opinion based upon hundreds of trips to Chicago.

[antinimby]

londonlawyer, no offense but your opinion is heavily biased.

You keep on saying the greater stock of older buildings New York has but as we can see here, we are losing them left and right. This doesn't seem to be the case in Chicago, where they are generally building big and grand on vacant lots. They are not tearing down their old buildings, at least not the nice ones.

So all in all, Chicago is getting better (filling up vacant lots with nice buildings) while New York, for the most part is getting worst (losing great old buildings for bland new ones). Eventually, even if New York is in the lead now, there will be a meeting point. When one is going up and the other going down, it has to.

I know you are proud of the city but even someone who has pride in their own city if they are objective, will have to admit that they have faults.

[londonlawyer]

There is no comparing NY and Chicago in terms of old builldings. Anyone who suggests the contrary is unfamiliar with the two cities.

[antinimby]

Like I said, apparently it doesn't matter how many times you've been there if you're biased. In a mother's eyes, an ugly child is the most beautiful in the world. No one sees the ugly kid more than the mother but does that make her opinion reliable?

londonlawyer, you are that mother. :D

[MidtownGuy]

Londonlawyer, you're ignoring the passage of time and failing to extrapolate.
Antinimby is clearly right, there will be a meeting point, it's pure math- addition and subtraction.

[londonlawyer]

There are no areas in Chicago comparable to SoHo, NoHo, TriBeCa, the UWS, the Flat Iron, Greenwich Village, etc. which consist of block after block after block of pre-WWII buildings.

[stache]

This particular thread is about a single building, not two cities.

[krulltime]

That unsophisticated argument just sounds like snobbery. I find Chicago quite impressive given that is less than half the size of NY. Their new towers and building policies are far more progressive and they don't rely on the greatness of their architectural past as an excuse to now put up garbage.

The tower reminds me of this proposed Chicago hotel (taller than ESB) that, unlike this, will probably be built...

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/807/waldorf6ab2.jpg
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=138309

So I guess they decided to built it in Chicago instead. :(

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8615/nytoweruo3.jpg

[Skylimitone]

That wouldn't surprise me lol. My mention of Chicago was based on an observation. It seems like they get more interesting New buildings. While I don't mind a good looking box, New York seems to have too many and one architect Costas.
Maybe its the environment? Landscape? :confused: Or cold developers?

[alonzo-ny]

Lets take that conversation to its appropriate thread, stirs the blood too much, might as well do it in the right place.

[Skylimitone]

Where would that be ?

[stache]

Feel free to start your very own thread about it.

[czsz]

Not original in any case. See: the twisting torso tower of Malmo, Sweden.

[alonzo-ny]

Where would that be ?

World architecture forum, NY v Chi development.

[Skylimitone]

Yeah found it after the fact, lol.

[Derek2k3]

This project was very close to being a reality. Checking out Coop Himmelbau's website you can see they had all the consultants, engineers, and even the marketers ready for the project. I only hope Madison Equities uses the extra cash made from selling this site to buy some other site to build this. (maybe the block to the north w/ the Wendy's) Surely with all the new office towers planned, hotel demand isn't going down.

[sfenn1117]

Whoa, I was away and I missed this, looks great but it's a dead proposal?