440 West 42nd Street at 10th Avenue - 60 Story Tower - by Arquitectonica

[buff]

Proposed changes:

[Derek2k3]

James Gardner --
Nasty, brutish and tall
42nd Street Yotel is cynically drab March 01, 2011 07:00AM By James Gardner


http://therealdeal.com/newyork/artic...utish-and-tall

In the past generation, few areas of the five boroughs have developed faster or more fundamentally than the three-quarter-mile stretch of 42nd Street that extends from Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River.

Some of the high-rises that have sprung up along that stretch are fairly good, at least by the rather low expectations that one brings to New York real estate: among these are the Silver Towers, the Atelier and the Orion. But truth be told, as you pass in review of this entire thoroughfare, from one river to the other, there is no architectural firm that has done quite as much damage to its two-mile expanse as the firm of Arquitectonica. The parti-colored, Bozo the Clown façade that the firm designed for the Westin Hotel, completed in 2002 at 42nd and Eighth, is so incompetent in conception, and so poor in execution, that the only thing more astounding than its having been realized in the first place is the fact that the very same firm has now been suffered to design a brand-new hotel, the so-called Yotel, only two blocks west, at 440 West 42nd Street.....

....But even within the context of this new development's severity and simplicity, the architects appear to have little faith in the internal logic of their vision. It has been fatally betrayed by the six-story base of the building. Though this is every bit as boxy as the rest of the development, it has been improbably clad in a tawny, porous limestone that would not look very good on any building, one suspects, but certainly is wrong, both chromatically and texturally, when placed in such close juxtaposition to the black boxes that sit atop it. With the possible exception of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, these two hues are not usually seen together. There is a reason for that, and only the people at Arquitectonica seem not to have discovered it....

Haha. Read the rest of the review here:
http://therealdeal.com/newyork/artic...utish-and-tall




I agree, can't see Arquitectonica getting too many more commissions in NY after this. I understand there was probably a very small budget for exterior flourishes, but all the moves they did make are awful. Such a waste of a large site.

Some past designs. The first and fourth are also Arquitectonica.

[lofter1]

Both the first and the fourth, which are similar in size and bulk to what went up, are vastly superior to what Related built.

Clearly Related looked at what Arquitectonica proposed, said "Cut this, do more of this, change this" and, in the end, chose to go with the uniformly dead exterior that we now see.

Any locals that can tell us how that glass looks at night? Is there much illumination that comes through to enliven all the black?

[infoshare]

James Gardner --
Nasty, brutish and tall
42nd Street Yotel is cynically drab March 01, 2011 07:00AM By James Gardner

How about, Tall, Dark and handsome on 42nd street' ; now that would be a more fitting headline to a news piece about 440 West 42nd street.

I admit to being biased toward Arquitectonica due to previous business relationships: but I 'truly' a find this building to be a perfectly fine work of architectural design.

Looking at this photo, one can clearly see that 440 is a much more 'attractive looking' building that either of the two other buildings right next to it; don't quite get all the harsh crit this one has been getting in the press and here at WNY - it guess it's just tough to please some people.

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showth...l=1#post344295
http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showth...?t=5509&page=3

[futurecity]

Why did they make the base so dead? Electronic signage would have been a better option, no?

Should have kept the lively sign option and made 42nd street an extension of times square.

[lofter1]

I was hoping that such illumination was still to come. But now that we know the corner at 42nd / Dyer is the entry for rentals / condos, such flashiness there is unlikely.

How about, Tall, Dark and handsome on 42nd street' ; now that would be a more fitting headline to a news piece about 440 West 42nd street.

It's not PR or a news piece, it's architectural criticism.

... 440 is a much more 'attractive looking' building that either of the two other buildings right next to it ...

Using the zebra building or Manhattan Plaza as a mark to beat sets the bar really really low.

[infoshare]

Why did they make the base so dead? Electronic signage would have been a better option, no?

The combination of the textured buff colored stone base, topped-off with a (comparatively) tall smooth dark-glass tower is quite a quite attractive 'look'. Photos do not do this one justice: the visual effect of the various surface textures/colors are a key element to the beauty of this building - that aspect just does not come-off in the photos we see here.

So, since you asked NO in my opinion - electronic signage would not have been a better option.

I am just glad 440 is not as drab looking as those other two buildings next to it - I (for one) credit Related and the architects with coming up with an attractive addition to the 'strip'.

[lofter1]

Having viewed it up close the stone here is pretty flat, and barely textured (if at all); the color variation is hardly detectable. IMHO, the terrible band of windows around the base, irregularly and randomly placed -- and seemingly left over from some mid-level office park development overlooking the turnpike in (Fill in the Blank) -- kills whatever nice effect they might have hoped for down low.

[scumonkey]

Sorry but the photos here actually make the building look BETTER than it does in person.
Unfortunately I have to see it everyday, as it's just a few blocks away.
It actually looks like a big black, cheap wavy glass tombstone, on top of a jumbled pile of
bad taste.- VERY oppressive.
(and those other two buildings it's being compared are two of the worst in the city...)

[futurecity]

The combination of the textured buff colored stone base, topped-off with a (comparatively) tall smooth dark-glass tower is quite a quite attractive 'look'. Photos do not do this one justice: the visual effect of the various surface textures/colors are a key element to the beauty of this building - that aspect just does not come-off in the photos we see here.

So, since you asked NO in my opinion - electronic signage would not have been a better option.

I am just glad 440 is not as drab looking as those other two buildings next to it - I (for one) credit Related and the architects with coming up with an attractive addition to the 'strip'.

It deadens the street man, you can't deny it's brutalist feel.

[londonlawyer]

Related's latest model for the Hudson Yards makes this tower look stylish.

http://therealdeal.com/newyork/artic...dent-jay-cross

[scumonkey]

link leads to
Routing Error

No route matches "/newyork/artic...dent-jay-cross" with {:method=>:get}

[londonlawyer]

Try this (and brace yourself for disappointment): http://therealdeal.com/newyork/artic...dent-jay-cross

[scumonkey]

screen grab of the atrocities awaiting us...on the west side -they just keep getting worse....can we ever get a break?!

[futurecity]

How tall is the tallest tower? Will it be a supertall?

Also, you can't tell what the finished product will be like just from this model. Calm down.

Also, you shouldn't have expected a very tall innovative tower here given all the renderings we've seen. It seems they wen't with the three shorter bulkier towers rather than the one taller one that was in the original render.

It might look decent if materials are good. At least it's not a monolith and has some variation in shape. Anyone who expected a Tower Verre or Shanghai Tower here was in massive denial. This is office space that must maximize floor space for clients.