Reply With QuoteSo at least it's not neon pink all the time...but the other colours aren't much better.
It really ought to have been considered for Times Square, or maybe the Meatpacking District, instead.
So at least it's not neon pink all the time...but the other colours aren't much better.
It really ought to have been considered for Times Square, or maybe the Meatpacking District, instead.
The "Beacon of Progress"? I wonder who came up with that name and ...why?
( I can just hear the Circle Line guy pointing it out and people craning their necks and snapping photos like crazy.)
Wasn't something with that name planned for Chicago maybe a hundred years ago?
Well...am I the only one who's reminded of Barad-Dûr?The Paris Salon of 1900 awarded its highest medal to MIT Professor Désiré Despradelle (Department of Architecture, 1893-1912) for his extravagant design for a proposed monument "dedicated to the glory of the American nation." Had he found sufficient backing for his "Beacon of Progress," the resulting structure would have been by far the tallest man-made object in the world.
Plans called for a 1500-foot stone tower in Jackson Park, Chicago, on the site of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, which had celebrated technological progress. The fair had inspired Despradelle with futuristic visions of the benefits to be drawn from technological leaps forward in the approaching century. He was likewise enthralled by Americans, whose "marvellous energy" was capable of "developing material things to a superlative degree." The giant tower, which he referred to as an "altar," would support a beacon light at its apex and have an amphitheater at its base, wherein leaders could impart "inspiring words" to assemblies in the room he called a "sanctuary." A series of elevators would carry visitors to observation balconies at different levels and up to the pinnacle itself.
The Beacon of Progress was said to be "of a grandeur of conception and of a daring in execution almost unparalleled." Drawings, such as the one reproduced here, are all that survive of Despradelle's grandiose scheme. They are themselves monuments to the spirit of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century science, which saw no limits to the heights to which scientific and technological advances could carry us.
From an account in The Technology Review, Vol. 2, No. 4, October 1900.
OMG that would look absolutely sick on Governor's Island
looks like some evil temple of the devil, I love it!
"The Beacon of Progress was said to be "of a grandeur of conception and of a daring in execution almost unparalleled." Drawings, such as the one reproduced here, are all that survive of Despradelle's grandiose scheme. They are themselves monuments to the spirit of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century science, which saw no limits to the heights to which scientific and technological advances could carry us."
It´s 2005 and our "Beacon of Progress" is a box decorated with pink neon.
Last edited by Fabrizio; October 20th, 2005 at 08:38 PM.
Maybe it's pink because it signifies the progress of gay rights and it will forever glow over Manhattan saying "give me your gay and your queer, your huddled masses yearning to huddle with other masses in bed."
The S&P guys at 55 Water are just screwing with us cuz they're sore they're not on Wall Str, so they devise this stupid thing that's completely useless. Actually there is an identical box on top of one of the shorter buildings near the Seaport that glows the same way but yellowish-white. Why is this Beacon of Progress down on the ground? If this is progress then we really haven't achieved much. My prediction: S&P will either take it down due to protest or due to high energy bills. Predicted life span: 3-5 years
I thought people cuddled in bed.
I was referring to a gay orgy, thus a huddled mass of people,I don't want to think about this anymore.
Are there any signs there that let people know this is a public space? I mean people don't just naturally go climbing stairs into buildings looking for a park.
Still, gay people cuddle just like everyone. Okay, I'll stop
Yeah, we'll have to see if this plaza will really attract a lot of people. If it doesn't, it can still serve as a secret — er, hem — cuddle spot.
As for the Beacon: I suppose that its diminutiveness tells a lot about the designers' opinions on progress. The name does sound hokey, anyway. The "Water Street Beacon" would do well enough.
I saw it from the N train going over the bridge it is very PINK! It has to be pissing off the snobs in Brooklyn Heights.
Pink Power? The Power of Pink?
Downtown Express
October 21 - 27, 2005
$7 million plaza reaching a higher level reopens
By Ellen Keohane
The new elevated plaza at 55 Water St. reopened Wednesday.
The plan features a Beacon, below left, that will be lit at night with different colors.
Walking by 55 Water St. in Lower Manhattan, there’s little evidence that a landscaped open space with trees, benches and a boardwalk exists just 30 feet above street level. But ascend a set of stairs or escalators, and you’ll discover a newly redesigned public park that delivers views of the East River, Governors Island, Brooklyn Heights and the Brooklyn Bridge.
“I think it’s going to be one of the most sought-after spaces in Lower Manhattan,” said Joel Kopel, a Community Board 1 member and resident of nearby 3 Hanover Square, which overlooks the plaza. “We’re very excited about it.”
As of Wednesday, “the Elevated Acre,” a newly renovated privately owned public space at 55 Water St., was officially opened to the public. The $7 million project has been in the works since 2002.
The project started with a design competition three years ago, hosted by the Municipal Art Society. Building owner Retirement Systems of Alabama, which handles retirement and insurance funds for an array of public employees, selected the Lower Manhattan-based firms Rogers Marvel Architects and Ken Smith Landscape Architects for the project out of more than 100 submissions.
When 55 Water St. opened in 1972, it was the largest privately owned office building in the world. Now, it is the second largest in the U.S. The site spans 3.7 acres and includes a 56-story north tower and a 15-story annex. All this space adds up to 3.6 million square feet of office space, which is occupied by eight tenants including Standard and Poor’s, Chubb Insurance and the Health Insurance Plan of New York, said the building’s senior vice president Edward J. Kulik, Jr.
The building’s unusually large size is due, in part, to a zoning resolution passed in 1961. In exchange for incorporating public space within or outside of a privately owned building, developers were granted additional floor space. Since the zoning change, 3.5 million square feet of public space has been produced in New York City. However, much of it is not of high quality, says Jerold S. Kayden in his book, “Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience.”
The resulting public space at 55 Water St.— constructed in 1972 by the building’s original owners — was an isolated and unadorned elevated plaza, rarely accessible to the public. “I’ve lived here since 1986, and I don’t remember anyone being up there,” Kopel said.
“It became a very uninviting space to go. The escalators didn’t work. They let the space deteriorate,” said Jonathan Greenspan, a member of the board of directors of 3 Hanover Square.
In the mid-1990s, Retirement Systems of Alabama obtained the title for 55 Water St. and began more than $400 million in much-needed renovations to the building, Kulik said.
Then, in 2001, when Chase Manhattan Bank vacated the annex and moved to New Jersey, Goldman Sachs expressed interest in leasing the space and building a 15-story structure on the plaza. In exchange, Goldman was going to improve park spaces nearby. The plan was backed by Community Board 1, but Goldman Sachs never signed the lease and the idea was scrapped, Kulik said.
The proposed new building, which would have blocked light and views of the East River, met opposition from residents of 3 Hanover Square. “We spent a lot of money and time and effort to fight the Goldman Sachs building,” Greenspan said.
Now that the 55 Water St. plaza has been renovated, Greenspan said he’s “thrilled.” “It went from totally being ignored, to something the community can be proud of and enjoy,” he said.
The newly renovated one-acre park, which will be open to the public during daylight hours, consists of four central features including an inclined open green space, a boardwalk along the East River, a 7,000-square-foot activity area with a turf field and a lighthouse “Beacon.”
The Beacon, the park’s most unique feature, is a 25-foot-tall glass tower. It contains more than 1,000 feet of programmable L.E.D. lights. “You can make it any color you want it to be,” said Jonathan Marvel, one of the principals of Rogers Marvel Architects. “You can ask the lights to perform any kind of gymnastics operation you want from a laptop in your office. It’s an amazing piece of technology,” he said.
The original plan for the park included an ice-skating rink as well as a 100-person glass elevator, which would take people from street level up to the park. However, due to budget constraints, the architects had to scale back their original design, Marvel said.
The inclined, open green space contains seating and plants, such as sea grass, and locust trees. Landscape architect Smith tried to select species of plants that were indigenous to New York’s estuaries, creating a dune-like quality to the space. “It has the magic of the beach, when you run up a dune and see the ocean,” said Marvel. Instead of the ocean, visitors will be exposed to a view of the East River.
“You’re reconnecting Water St. back to the water,” Marvel said.
Beautiful
Contrary to the views expressed on this thread, I think that the beacon, despite it pitiful name, is a beautiful addition to the park and elevates this small piece of public space from another featureless vest-pocket park into the realm a of a great public space. This will be published in books in a few short years, mark my words.
Great public space? Maybe great open space if one is so inclined to think, but there's no reason for this ever to be a natural public gathering place. It's open to the masses but will clearly never approach such spots as Union Square which actually nourish, invite, and accomodate activity.
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