Proposed: 59 story tower - 250 East 57th St @ 2nd Ave - by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

**Alonzo-ny** · December 16th, 2007, 12:17 AM

Anyone who lives in midtown and says something is too tall should be legally sent to a sanitarium.

**macreator** · December 16th, 2007, 01:08 AM

This tower is definitely promising. How sad is it that the mere fact that this proposal isn't a standard SOM glass box thrills me. I do agree with londonlawyer though that even SOM NY can produce some nice stuff if given the right developer and some direction. I can sympathize that it must be tough working with a cheapskate like Mort Zuckerman.

Let's hope this thing get's built. I'd still like to see some more renderings though. I'm not entirely sold on how the top comes together, but I'll give the tower the benefit of the doubt for now. Overall, this thing looks to be a lot more interesting than what I was expecting.

**Alonzo-ny** · December 16th, 2007, 01:20 AM

I have to say, from a rational point of view, when I was at the Con Ed CB meeting the SOM team did seem to have a solid grasp of what was needed at that site (planning wise) and seemed alot more adept than their general reputation suggests. I think a change of leadership could make a big difference there. Someone who will challenge the clients and resist these cheap projects.

**MidtownGuy** · December 16th, 2007, 10:45 AM

Wow, very interesting! This is exciting, I hope it stays like this.

**NoyokA** · December 16th, 2007, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by londonlawyer

SOM has many nice projects. They seem to produce crap only when cheap developers like Zuckerman direct them to. SOM's website has some awesome buildings that they've recently designed.

Even in NY, they're responsible for two great buildings in recent years: the TWT and Bear Stearns. For that matter, 7WT is decent.

You hit the nail on the head. There's people in SOM that have talent, it all has to do with the client. SOM is a corporation though and will never step away from a project, unlike Gehry if the budget is low and the timeframe is small they will work with it. Architect that I've seen that just plain outright suck regardless of budget are the Kaufmann, Poon, Ohara's.

**NoyokA** · December 16th, 2007, 01:59 PM

Also Londonlawyer, Antinimby, and others, please refrain from using POS. It takes all but a second to think of an analogous word that is not an acronym for Piece of Shit. The subject was discussed in the moderators forum and we, along with Edward have come to an agreement that the use of POS is not acceptable. I'm asking this nicely so that infractions do not have to be issued. Thanks, guys.

**ASchwarz** · December 17th, 2007, 12:38 AM

Originally Posted by pianoman11686

So, I'm guessing this would be around 600 feet tall? Not bad, for that area.

I imagine it will be somewhat taller, as the bottom floors will contain schools and multilevel retail. Both uses will have high floor heights.

**Derek2k3** · December 17th, 2007, 02:47 AM

Right. It's 59 floors above the school/retail. I'd put it at 750'.

**sfenn1117** · December 18th, 2007, 03:05 PM

Different rendering from cityrealty.com:

**londonlawyer** · December 18th, 2007, 03:08 PM

Cool!

**Alonzo-ny** · December 18th, 2007, 03:10 PM

Very nice!

**NoyokA** · December 18th, 2007, 03:32 PM

A little fat, but an interesting and exciting form nevertheless. This will help define the east-side skyline.

**MidtownGuy** · December 18th, 2007, 03:36 PM

Fantastic. This will be great for the East Side. We've had so many mundane and boring towers go up along 2nd and 3rd, this is a welcomed breath of fresh air.