55 West 46th St - International Gem Tower - by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

**ramvid01** · December 4th, 2007, 09:57 PM

Very uninspired design, considering what was previously proposed. I would rather this just stay a hole until something more interesting is proposed. Yuck.

**Stroika** · December 4th, 2007, 11:04 PM

Although SOM has a long and storied history and is an American architectural institution, their New York office really is crap.

I'm not surprised in the least that the Diamond Tower is so dull. SOM seems to stay half a step behind the curve in order to provide just enough glass, just enough sleekness, just enough of a cool finish to an interior to provide a building with a fresh, contemporary feel.

But they'll never push for anything more than is needed, never do anything new. It's corporate garbage architecture, and this new building will go down the toilet of history with 300 Madison, 383 Madison and the "Freedom Tower" in 20 years as stuff that seems purposeless in retrospect.

SOM (along with the annoyingly beinitialed RAM Stern -- I can never forgive him for the fake-Colonial Harvard Business School) is the city's most conventional, least inelegant, least imaginative firm. They've both built their names around goofy, postmodernist, conventional schlock that no piece of old New York should be sacrificed for. I don't see how these guys get work.

**BrooklynRider** · December 4th, 2007, 11:27 PM

It's alomst comical to see how long this thread has be going, patiently waiting for the highly anticipated design. Then this comes out.

It's actually funny in a very anticlimactic way.

**kz1000ps** · December 5th, 2007, 12:13 AM

SOM -- cutting edge design for the year 1959!

**NoyokA** · December 5th, 2007, 12:46 AM

Originally Posted by stache

Once again we can thank our mayor for this kind of drek.

I didn't realize Bloomberg worked for SOM...

**stache** · December 5th, 2007, 04:40 AM

What kind of mentality do you think allows this kind of project to be heavily subsidized?

**antinimby** · December 5th, 2007, 05:33 AM

I don't think there's a connection between subsidies and terrible designs.

If that was the case, then how does one explain the totally privately financed clunker that is CIBC's 300 Madison Ave. (also by SOM by the way) or McSams or Macklowe's proposed Madison Ave. tower or Zuckerman's Eighth/W. 54th piece of garbage or any number of the crappy condos that we see here on a daily basis?

It basically came down to Extell making a poor choice on design firm and then going with a bad design.

**lofter1** · December 5th, 2007, 09:42 AM

A not-so-great building for what is already an ugly block olong W 47th. Blecgh. But I avoid that crowded block, anyway.

I'm more interested in what its south facade will look like (facing onto 46th and the big open plaza at mid-block).

**econ_tim** · December 5th, 2007, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by lofter1

A not-so-great building for what is already an ugly block olong W 47th. Blecgh. But I avoid that crowded block, anyway.

I'm more interested in what its south facade will look like (facing onto 46th and the big open plaza at mid-block).

if i stand up and lean against my window, i can see the lot, which is cleared and has a couple of backhoes just starting excavation.

**econ_tim** · December 5th, 2007, 10:06 AM

**lofter1** · December 5th, 2007, 10:49 AM

That is the side I'm talking about ^

**BrooklynRider** · December 6th, 2007, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by econ_tim

if i stand up and lean against my window, i can see the lot, which is cleared and has a couple of backhoes just starting excavation.

A couple of black ho's just starting excretion?

Nevermind, I cleaned my eyeglasses.

**Peteynyc1** · December 9th, 2007, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by BrooklynRider

A couple of black ho's just starting excretion?

Nevermind, I cleaned my eyeglasses.

Black ho's?

**TREPYE** · December 9th, 2007, 05:25 PM

Precisely the reason I hate those SOB's @ SOM. A replica of 300 Madison and basically every other POS corporate box they have excreted.

The disgrace that is SOM-NYC continues....

...and the developer is another piece of garbage as well.

**Hamilton** · December 9th, 2007, 09:46 PM

I hope this doesn't sound too naive, but on the surface it seems that Barnett has good intentions in that he is aware that design is an important consideration for the respectable developer, but horrible, horrible taste in architecture. When the two crap Ariel towers on the UWS on Broadway went up, he was puzzled by the opposition, mentioning the fact that he gave the neighborhood to "beautiful" towers with great designs. I kid you not.

Too bad this guy's architectural tastes are grounded in the 1960's.