NEW YORK | Greenwich South study (SkyVoid) | 1,300 FT / 396 M

[NYguy]

I remember when this study came out, a few renderings only, nothing detailed like this...

cs@sf

IwamotoScott's contribution to the Greenwich South design study commissioned by the Downtown Alliance & led by ARO, Beyer Blinder Belle & OPEN: A visionary 1,300' tower at Greenwich and Edgar Streets sited adjacent to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in Lower Manhattan.

Proposed sustainable building strategies include an environmentally-modulated skin, fiber-optic daylighting and bio-filtration terrarium floors within dual branching atria spanning Edgar Street.

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[NYguy]

Here's the link to that Greenwich South study from the Downtown Alliance.

[scalziand]

That, even though it is just a study, is wicked awesome. I* hope that when the Battery garage is eventually redeveloped, it is done with a similar magnitude of vision.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by scalziand

I* hope that when the Battery garage is eventually redeveloped, it is done with a similar magnitude of vision.

Well, the city for years has been talking about unleashing the nearly 3 msf of residential development air rights from the garage and tunnel approach, although that's been put on hold until the economy improves. But I've always loved the idea of another supertower downtown other than the WTC to help anchor things, and bring new excitement to those classic canyons. And it doesn't hurt that the design is a good one...


http://www.evolo.us/architecture/edg...-architecture/

IwamotoScott’s description of the project:

The design for Edgar Street Towers responds to its immediate site context while establishing a strong relationship to the larger urban form of Manhattan. The design is inspired by earlier visionary projects for Manhattan that proposed new hybrids of architecture, infrastructure and public space.

The towers’ design seeks to reinstate Edgar Street as an east-west public way, reconnecting Greenwich and Washington streets. The space of this passageway through the building twists upwards, rising through the body of the towers, pinching at the mid level to allow for larger floorplates, and culminating at a rooftop sky lobby and civic space. This space at the towers’ crown is aligned with the primary Manhattan street grid to the north, directly on axis with 5th Avenue.

Edgar Street Towers’ programmatic mixture serves the local neighborhood while enhancing the public realm of lower Manhattan. The scale and mix of uses aims to reflect the grandness of vision and diversity of architectural experiences found for example in the premier civic, cultural and commercial landmarks organized along 5th Avenue to the north. This programmatic mixture is envisioned to include spaces for living, working, art, performance, retail and a branch public library. The program is organized by the towers’ central atrium, enhanced by daylight channeled from above via an integrated light-transmitting fiber-optic array. In addition, the atrium deploys bio-filtration terrariums occupying hollow spaces within the floors, thus acting as the building’s lungs to provide clean air to its occupants. By night, the light-flow is reversed, whereby the fiber-optic array is lit from integrated solar-charged battery packs.

On a macro scale, Edgar Street Towers takes advantage of the visibility and prominence offered by its site, where its dynamic form acts as a civic landmark and beacon for those coming to and leaving the city.

Media coverage of the study...
http://www.downtownny.com/greenwichsouth/gsmedia.pdf

with a quote from Metropolis magazine...

Craig Scott, of IwamotoScott Architecture—another of the firms that contributed to the Greenwich South design effort—writes in with a clarification.

Although what is available on the Downtown Alliance Web site is, as George Beane writes above, “mostly a collection of polished images,” Scott assures us that the designs are far more developed than that.

IwamotoScott’s tower design, for instance, incorporates a variety of sustainable strategies, including a gradient-aperture structural skin (for material efficiency and to reduce heat gain), a fiber-optic daylighting system, and an air-filtering terrarium floor in the building’s atrium—while also re-opening Edgar Street (now covered by an MTA garage) and generally taking advantage of the site’s prominence above the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

It's good that people are thinking of Downtown's future beyond the WTC again.



nabil.s

[winlinmac001]

I have a strange feeling the future of Downtown is going to resemble a lot like Midtown and the streets are going to appear more congested and cramped. I know plans to reconnect the grid may provide more flexibility, but before 9/11 the spatial density between buildings in downtown was less dense. In a post 9/11 era, there is a population explosion of development all over Downtown and developers think 'more' is better than 'less'. 21st Century?

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

dear God this thing is georgeous! i hope it gets built!

[JustinL]

One of the more amazing designs I've seen. Would certainly be a world architecture landmark, probably beyond anything even NYC has to offer. The ground level design leaves me in awe.

[Aleks]

I don't like the bottom two/thirds but the top is nice looking. I would rather have a different design. it's certainly not gorgeous in my book, or one of the most amazing designs ever, heck Tour Phare (which i really really like btw) looks many times better than this.

[Crush_Buds]

Wow.

[NYguy]

A little more talk about the tower...

http://inhabitat.com/2010/05/10/spir...tration-lungs/

Spiraling New York Skyscraper Features Bio-Filtration “Lungs”



by Bridgette Meinhold
05/10/10

SF-based IwamotoScott Architecture have designed an incredible spiraling mixed-use high rise as part of an economic study for Greenwich South, the 41-acre site directly south of the World Trade Center. Straddling Edgar Street, the twisting tower features a number of sustainable building strategies, including an environmentally modeled skin, fiber-optic daylighting, and bio-filtration terrarium floors within dual-branching atria, which work much like a set of lungs to provide fresh air to the building.

The tower’s two bases straddle Edgar Street and then spiral up, joining in the middle before splitting off into two atria. This second split is where the bio-filtration terrarium floors are located — these open gardens provide clean air to the occupants inside. A light-transmitting fiber optic array draws daylight down into the building during the day. Then at night, the fiber optics work in reverse, lighting up the towers from the inside and with power provided by integrated solar-charged battery packs. The building skin is also environmentally modulated for optimal solar shading and wind resistance.

The Edgar Street Towers are planned for a prominent location at the south end of Manhattan, where they would serve as a beacon for the area and a civic landmark. Inside, the 1,300 foot towers would feature space for living, working, art, performance, retail, a branch public library as well as a rooftop sky lobby and civic space. The design study was commissioned by the Downtown Alliance and led by ARO, Beyer Blinder Belle & OPEN.

_______________________

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/05/architects-prop.php

Architects propose mind-bending, twisty tower for New York City

Architecture firm IwamotoScott, which secured a special place in our hearts for this future vision of San Fransisco, is now turning its sights on New York City with the Edgar Street Towers. More than just an office spire, the Edgar Street Towers would act as a thoroughfare joining the streets on opposite sides of it — an important feature in a big city, where long avenues can make walking somewhere much longer.

The building's spidery design allows for plenty of natural light to filter in, and would also act as a space for art and a public library, and it would have an observatory toward the top for people to take in the view of southern Manhattan.

____________________________________

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/05/09/edg...-iwamotoscott/

Edgar Street Towers by IwamotoScott



May 9th, 2010

San Francisco architects IwamotoScott have completed a design study for a tower (above, right) straddling a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

The proposal was commissioned by New York’s Downtown Alliance as part of the Greenwich South project, a study into how to transform a 41 acre-site south of the World Trade Center site.

“The Downtown Alliance commissioned the larger project that this tower is part of, Greenwich South, as a design study for the present, as well as the near and distant future, for that part of Lower Manhattan, to drum up interest in the private and public sectors,” says IwamotoScott’s Craig Scott. “The particular brief of our site/project was that it was part of the longer term vision.”

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

if this is proposed why is it maked as vision?

[BrandonJXN]

What a *stunning* building.

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

if this is proposed why is it maked as vision?

It probably doesn't have any financing.

[eaalkaline]

Am I the only one who immediately thought "car bomb" when I saw that design? Hate to be the pessimist, but there is no way that design will be approved unless the height is DRASTICALLY reduced to make it less of a target.

[StarScraperCity]

Originally Posted by eaalkaline

Am I the only one who immediately thought "car bomb" when I saw that design? Hate to be the pessimist, but there is no way that design will be approved unless the height is DRASTICALLY reduced to make it less of a target.

I mean no offense to you by saying this, but I despise that mentality. As long as we remain in a state of perpetual fear, the terrorists have won.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by eaalkaline

Am I the only one who immediately thought "car bomb" when I saw that design? Hate to be the pessimist, but there is no way that design will be approved unless the height is DRASTICALLY reduced to make it less of a target.

A car bomb isn't gonna do anything against a skyscraper this size. People need to forget about skyscrapers as primary targets for terrorism. Open spaces, where large crowds gather, like stadiums, squares, subways, etc. are more likely targets. But we're not shutting down any of those, so we shouldn't stop building either.

However, I do believe if such a tower were built in that location, the tunnel approach should be covered over for a paza.

Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

if this is proposed why is it maked as vision?

Plans were drawn up by the architect as part of a study on the future of that secion of lower Manhattan. For it to become an actual proposal, someone who can build it needs to take it from there. Because it's not restricted as an office tower, a building like this can afford to be more exuberant in its design. It's also likely to cost more to build.

[mwadswor]

Originally Posted by StarScraperCity

I mean no offense to you by saying this, but I despise that mentality. As long as we remain in a state of perpetual fear, the terrorists have won.

+1

Originally Posted by NYguy

Plans were drawn up by the architect as part of a study on the future of that secion of lower Manhattan. For it to become an actual proposal, someone who can build it needs to take it from there. Because it's not restricted as an office tower, a building like this can afford to be more exuberant in its design. It's also likely to cost more to build.

Probably a dumb question, but why would an office tower have to have a more conservative design?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by mwadswor

Probably a dumb question, but why would an office tower have to have a more conservative design?

Typically, at least in New York, office towers require more blanced floorplates, with enough space to accomodate various amounts of office workers. Just as an example, you wouldn't see something like Calatrava's Chicago Spire, or 80 South Street being built as office space.

Clearly a tower such as this one wouldn't have the large floorplates necessary in New York's office market.

Beyond that, developers aren't going to spend lavishly on designs for extra-extravagant office towers, which are basically warehouses for clerks.

[The-T]

looks ugly! I think this is a very tall building!! But design not bad))

[pyropius]

Driving on Edgar street will feel like diving between the legs of a supermodel who is striding down a catwalk, except here you'll be able to see the tiny creatures that do business in the crotch!