Time Warner Center @ Columbus Circle - by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

[NYguy]

Here's a lengthy Times's article on the project...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/19/re...p;position=top


Behind Columbus Monument, a 7-level luxury mall nears completion, with towers above.



Cutaway view of AOL Time Warner Center shows Jazz at Lincoln Center on the upper floors; the Rose Theater at left and Allen Room at right, overlooking Columbus Circle through two glass walls. Below the Allen Room is the retail atrium, leading to the Whole Foods Market in the basement. Below that is an Equinox health club.

[TLOZ Link5]

I read that article. *Very informative and interesting.

[DominicanoNYC]

I passs by that building everyday and I've seen renderings of the buildning. It's going to be a really nice building.

[amigo32]

Yea, you're right Dominicano, *that will be one sweet building. *I can't wait to get a chance to see it when it is completed.

[dbhstockton]

Amazing that the project was filed as an alteration to gain easier approval. *That kind of law bending and streching sounds like something out of Robert Moses' playbook. *

[NYatKNIGHT]

This article also mentions the renovation of Columbus Circle:

At the same time, however, they will gain a renovated and relandscaped Columbus Circle, under a $21 million project designed by the Olin Partnership. It is obviously in the developer's interest to raise Columbus Circle from what the landscape architect Laurie D. Olin described as its malformed current state. "It's the kind of public-private partnership you hope will happen,"

Mr. Olin said. His design will reinforce the geometry of the circle with a new fountain around the Columbus Monument, an inner ring of yellow buckeye trees, a landscaped berm, an outer ring of honey locusts and concentric decorative paving.

The paper showed a rendering of the circle, but it's not in the website.


And what's this about a 150 foot prow?

AOL Time Warner plans to begin constructing its headquarters and CNN studio space this summer and will move into the building in phases next year. The company will declare its presence graphically through a 150-foot-high steel-frame prow at the 58th Street edge of the building, which is to form a kind of gateway across Eighth Avenue with 2 Columbus Circle, the future home of the Museum of Arts and Design (formerly the American Craft Museum). AOL Time Warner is considering fanlike displays within the prow, which is as tall as the Statue of Liberty, minus the pedestal.

"Our intent is certainly not a Times Square kind of presentation," said Philip R. Pitruzzello, vice president for real estate projects, but for corporate branding in "some contextually appropriate way."

The City Planning Department will see the prow design this week. "We're hoping that whatever will be in the prow will in some way complement 2 Columbus Circle,"...


(Edited by NYatKNIGHT at 11:56 am on Jan. 20, 2003)

[Rich Battista]

sounds like a great idea to me

[NYatKNIGHT]

Images taken on March 9.


Street Level





The highly reflective glass lends different contrasts of light on each angle.




The sky is perfectly mirrored on the lower north tower from this angle.




Working on the crown - north tower




Columbus Statue at the base




Maine Monument and Trump Int'l.




From behind 2 Columbus Circle - angles and glass




Down Central Park South at sunset




A Central Park shot while in the neighborhood

[diVinci]

NYatKnight...

Is it me...or are none of the images opening?

[fvcrew22]

not sure, but i can't see them either......

[TLOZ Link5]

I think it just might be you. *The images are working fine for me.

Try clicking and holding the mouse button on each image until you get a pop-up menu. *Select "Load Missing Image;" however, I can't guarantee that it will definitely work.

[maxinmilano]

Of course is not aq masterpiece like Portzamparc's LVMH Tower or Piano's NYTimes bldg but this project is a good project. Bold and elegant at the same time, linked with the history of the city (the grid, the quotation of the crown) but at the same time not too superficial in this way. It's a good project in a good position maybe a little bit underestimated.

[diVinci]

Yes...the server site he posted them on is now working.
I can see them just fine and they are great photos!

Notice how the glass facade, in bright daylight, is bluer, brighter and it appears gray on a cloudy "gray" day.
Interesting how the glass reflects the color of the environment and the overall light conditions. *Overall, this complex is going to be spectacular...especially when the new landscaping of Columbus Circle will be integrated.

(Edited by diVinci at 6:44 pm on Mar. 11, 2003)

[billyblancoNYC]

Rreally, a wonderful project all around. *GREAT for NYC - one complex with a super lux hotel, super lux condos, a corp headquarters for a huge corp, tv studios, a wonderful cultural complex (Jazz@Lincoln Center), a shpooing mall, huge grocery (maybe the best in the country), and a floor dedicated to insane restaurants (French Laundry NY, Jean Georges Steakhouse, $500 a person sushi - moving from Beverly Hills, and so on).

Wonderful.

[Fabb]

Yes, the diversity of uses is amazing.
The most successful of them will probably lack room in a couple of years.