Hmmm.....

"Among" doubtless presupposes two or more.

What I'd do for dibs on the short list.....

^ Stern was also mentioned earlier. I think SHoP is on as well.

Gehry huh...hmmm. Expect something absurd and graceless.

Phase II portion on the Upper East bloc of Western Yards will be: office + residential @ 1.5 mil-sq ft. Should generate a sizable tower by the sounds of it.

Any guesses on which one will be Calatrava?

The two interconnected residential towers in the middle. Just a guess, but with the garden component, I could envision Calatrava working his magic on that,

8 Spruce is awesome.

Just as a quick aside here, re 8 Spruce:

There's a reason why one side of the tower is a flat surface.

My understanding of it is that the developers told Gehry to not go ham on the overall exterior form of the tower.

I think the initial fears were related to the understanding that a full-blown Gehry design would ruin it. IMO aside from the directive he as given, he otherwise made a remarkably subdued delivery on the facade.

This time, however, he may well be tasked with contributing to the open spaing component.

I don’t know why these NY developers like Extell, Related and others, that bring in big name starchitects at first but then either value engineer and waterdown their designs (smooth out the wrinkles, straightening out the curves, removing cross bracings, etc.) essentially back to plain boxes. Central Park tower, 35 HY, Girasole, 3 WTC come to mind.

If you are going to do that, then just use SLCE or Handels from the start and save us the big initial excitement and then the eventual letdown.

I'm shocked that Calatrava's reputation isn't completely trashed due to his numerous disastrous projects. And Gehry's name shouldn't hold much cachet anymore. His work has become very repetitive.

It would have been nice if they picked New York architects. The irony is that Chinese developers will hire New York architects to design whole megaprojects, and other cities are now hiring New York architects to ape their style, but they're not headlining a signature project like Hudson Yards?

I've spoken at length about the "shrine" fustercluck that had Calatrava's name on it; but it's worth pointing out that the reason for it had nothing to do with him.

Maybe the projects these guys work on will ultimately force them to go beyond their comfort zone.

Calatrava = OVERLY expensive projects.

The new Calatrava church is just a minor Calatrava-linked money pit. He's seriously tarnished.

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3039658...ated-architect

https://www.theguardian.com/artandde...rchitect-spain

I just hope Phase II is skinny towers. I am not a fan of tightly clustered bulky towers.

We will need that, especially with the Spiral, 50 Hudson, and 3 Hudson all getting underway.




It's one of the best of the new breed in the last decade or so.



All of this whining about what these architects could potentially build here - we haven't seen a rendering of what they have planned yet. Let's get a rendering, and then the whining could commence.

Anyway, about my earlier question, I think a Calatrava designed tower would most likely go in the center, SHoP desinged towers on the south, maybe Stern directly on 11th, south of the office tower. I don't see either of those firms doing the office tower. We'll see how close I am with that.



http://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/co...17-960x540.jpg
www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com

It doesn't matter what Calatrava builds.

Thanks to Vandelay, I've been schooled on the degree of liability his presence in this collaborative effort would present.

If he's picked for sure, they'd best have him shunted to the non-highrise side of it, whatever that entails...the school, most likely. They literally can not afford give him room to dictate a price tag.

That they even considered his name for contribution to this phase of the project IMO indicates that they haven't quite grasped the big takeaway from previous experience:

You don't always get what you pay for...and if you do, make sure it's on schedule.

https://www.politico.com/states/new-...-access-470061

Hudson Yards developer seeking same federal funds Gateway has struggled to access

By DANA RUBINSTEIN
06/18/2018

I’m sure the city could help out if additional funds are needed.
Tax breaks always help. :rolleyes:

Site plan looks intact on this model...


https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn10XU5n...-by=juansterus

https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram...45399040_n.jpg

Any ideas as to what that gray wall will be composed of? It would be awesome to see some upper Manhattan looking natural stone there or massive granite blocks, something monumental is in order here.