Apparently they couldn't be bothered with such pettiness. I don't blame them. I'm more concerned with the design, and have yet to see it. But it could be worse. They don't really have to build that high at all. And this tower could be put on hold indefinitely. But it doesn't appear to be headed that way, and we'll likely see work in a matter of months if not sooner. There's a long line of people in other places that would line up for it.

We haven't seen the design yet, everyone needs to chill out.

Ive never been impressed with Adrian Smith who is formerly of SOM in Chicago and produced mediocre buildings there (Trump Tower). I was concerned when he was chosen as the architect and it seems justified considering what we know so far (odd cantilever, boxed rooftop, all glass). I feel like when these "starchitects" reach a certain prominence, they simply recycle old designs with a little twist. I imagine this will be the same.

+1

Imagine all the cities who would kill for 57th street development, or Manhattan West, or Hudson Yards, or the WTC development, or the development slated for the midtown rezoning, etc.

Sorry the video is so enormous; I'm good with pictures, not videos, as shown by the bad quality & shakiness. Fast forward to 3:30 for the good stuff.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7zbjaiunz...001_191209.mp4

Trump Tower is awesome (best US skyscraper of the last decade), and is so Burj Khalifa. There might be more creative designs out there (and certainly safer, they could have gone with Peli AGAIN), but not many as instant classics.

^^No full shot of the building?

From what I saw of the building i was anything but happy, and I believe they have a word for this; HIDEOUS. It looks like some librarians imbalanced stack of books turned into glass. :( very upsetting.
Well we had to have something bad to even us out from the beauty of 111 w 57th, oh wait... no we don't.

I guess some architects get such big heads they feel like they can pass off anything as an original masterpiece.
#eyesore

PS. sorry for ranting but I just had to get it out. Next tower please!

How skinny is the tower portion? I can't tell if it is a glare in the video or not, but it looks razor thin.

That cantilever is simply gargantuan.
The facade seems to have some substance...

Yeah, I can hardly see the damn thing. Not even taking into account the video quality issue...

They had B&W full shots interspersed in the presentation which you can briefly glimpse; they were more flattering than the actual renderings, but impossible to capture on my camera phone. Apologies.

What do you mean!? The video quality is stunning. ;)

In all seriousness they did show several videos so I imagine they will be released soon. Use the above as a rough guide - the actual videos are far better quality obviously.

The Nordstrom base as well as some of the composition of the lower tower portion looks nice. None of us can judge the tower yet as you couldn't really see it.

Thanks for the video bbr. I have to admit, I had pretty high expectations for this tower, which from what was shown in the video, were not met. On the bright side, given its boxy shape, it along with 432 Park should anchor opposite ends of this corridor quite well together, with the more interesting and fluid shapes of One57, Verre, and 107 W 57th, all crammed in between.

Guess we'll just have to hold out for better renderings, and hope for the best, and that 107 and Verre get built asap.

http://i.imgur.com/VBvTF9e.png


Hard to get a read when we can't see the whole building, but it doesn't look bad. I kind of like the cantilevering actually.

Whaaaaaaat?

TBH I'm not too confident that what I see from the cantilever upwards is gonna be anything remotely different than...well...a *box*.
There...I said it.
We've been assured that this won't be a sheer vertival 432P Doppeltgänger...I pray that the official renderings bolster that.

Unfotunately incorrect; it most certainly is a box. Though not apparent in the video, they did have B&W drawings that confirmed the 'box' aspect of the tower portion, as did the overhead massing. :(

One57 wasn't a stunner at first either (with poor renderings) but the finished product turned out way better than expected. I think they will pull it off successfully. If people are disappointed with the design from a creative standpoint that's fair to say, yet that doesn't mean they won't like the finished product. Yeah it's a mixed bag right now.

Thanks for your contribution Babyback! I'm gonna wait and see more renderings of the building before I make a jugement so I'll save my rant about how AS&GH should keep their crappy designs in Asia as well as my "I told you so" when he was picked ahead of Herzog and SHOP, speaking of which they should be laughing hysterically considering the masterpiece they're building next door.... But I'll hold on for better renderings.