[De Minimis NY]

I’m blown away. For me, the design greatly exceeds the hype.

NYC is full of beautiful views, but unfortunately the chaotic nature of pedestrian traffic often makes it difficult to casually wander the streets and take them in. Everyone walks with a purpose—outside of our parks, you’re basically always on a human conveyor belt.

(You may remember that the original Midtown East rezoning proposal sought to remedy this very problem by widening the median on Park Avenue to create a new pedestrian pathway in the center).

This design addresses that problem in such a creative way. It adds a mile of extra sidewalk above our heads, created specifically for just standing around and enjoying the moment, with completely unique views inside and out, and happens greatly increase the pedestrian holding capacity of the plaza in the process.

Think about the winding paths of Central Park… they’re really pretty inconvenient for cutting directly from one side of the park to the other, but that’s not the point. They were designed for nice strolls around the park, where the objective isn’t to get anywhere, just to enjoy the walk. This takes that centuries-old concept and pulls it up into the air, conjuring up a mile of pathways on a relatively tiny footprint (note that the base is actually quite small). Below you have a canopy of overhang to stand under in the rain or for shade. The reflective materials create thousands of unique views of stairs in all directions (as mentioned by others, very Escher-esque), and will become extreme Instagram fodder like the cloud gate has in Chicago.

It’s like nothing anywhere else in the world, and will surely become a major landmark the moment it is finished.