NEW YORK | 15 Penn Plaza (Hotel Penn) | 1,050 FT / 315 M | 52 FLOORS

[CoolCzech]

Clearly, the ESB can't expect that the entire area around it will be off limits to other tall/taller buildings forever... that would be the point Manhattan turned into a museum city instead of the modern epitome of a Metropolis it is. I do understand the attachment to the view of the ESB in magnificent isolation, but one just has to accept that new, also great, views can be created.

The alternative is to have the ESB's position forever preserved in a way that parallels the Washington Monument's favored position at the National Mall - great to look at, but there is no denying that the Mall is not a real city center but just a dreary overgrown cemetery of sorts.

[JACKinBeantown]

I don't get the comment about the Washington mall being like and overgrown cemetery. It's there for people to gather, and they do it all the time. It's actually a place that gives life to the voices of Americans at the footsteps of the offices of our elected officials. Hardly a cemetery. But I agree completely with what you said about the ESB and its view, and the ability for New York to carry on into the future sustaining its metropolisness. I'm not crazy about the design of this building or its location, but as H.G. Wells said (kinda) and Einstein paraphrased, time is the fourth dimension, and it moves forward.

[NYguy]

I'm still undecided about which version of the tower appeals to me most, I could go either way with it. The multi-tenant version seems more in the spirit of the ESB,
sitting atop its podium. But I like the sheer wall rising above 7th on the single tenant version.









Here's a look at the enlargement the pedestrian tunnel (Gimbel's Passageway) will receive...

[yankeesfan1000]

Thanks for the diagram, it's one thing to see sketches of the single vs the multi-tenant versions alone but it's another thing to see them with the rest of the city. And I agree, I like the single tenant version better for the exact same reason, I also like how the tower isn't centered on it's base for some reason.

Either way I'm happy this got approved as is.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by yankeesfan1000

Thanks for the diagram, it's one thing to see sketches of the single vs the multi-tenant versions alone but it's another thing to see them with the rest of the city. And I agree, I like the single tenant version better for the exact same reason, I also like how the tower isn't centered on it's base for some reason.

Yeah, the single tenant version has the trading floors, so the tower core had to rise on one side.

[jamesinclair]

Wow, what a great diagram. Its amazing that they can build such a tall building having to deal with so much stuff right under it.

[NYguy]

^ More complicated in a way than building the WTC while keeping the PATH system running. The Manhattan West complex will have a similar construction.



http://worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=14550

[philvia]

love those diagrams

[hunser]

i'm all for the new development, i mean how anyone can be against it?
also, as many mentioned here, the tower's final design has yet to be released and i'm very positive that it will be nice.

so, let's build it!

[OneWorldTradeCenter]

Originally Posted by NYguy

^ More complicated in a way than building the WTC while keeping the PATH system running. The Manhattan West complex will have a similar construction.

If that's the case, you'll know what that means... Foundation work, or even work until the structure is going to rise above the ground, will take a loooong looong time... Just remember One WTC.

[Dac150]

I'm very curious as to how transformed this area will be by 2020.

[NYguy]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-sigman/a-hotel-a-phone-number-an_b_697954.html

A Hotel, A Phone Number, and a Song

Michael Sigman

At that time, the biggest and hottest nightclub in town was the Pennsylvania Hotel's Café Rouge, where such Swing Era icons as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Artie Shaw performed. Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, who played the club more than anyone else, were showcasing a tune -- not much more than a riff, really -- whose precise origin is lost in the mists of musical lore. (In those days an orchestra leader frequently took credit for tunes written or arranged by his players. Miller's name, along with that of arranger Jerry Gray, appears on the recordings.)

Music publishers were the kings of the industry then, so when king of kings Jack Robbins asked -- okay, demanded -- that Carl write a lyric, and fast, that's exactly what Carl did. Call it fate, but somehow the riff wed perfectly to the hotel phone number. Pennsylvania 6-5000 became Miller's signature number at the Rouge, and the RCA Victor Bluebird recording quickly ascended to the top 5 on the Billboard charts.

Most listeners think the lyric to Pennsylvania 6-5000 comprises that one phrase -- the website CD Universe represents it as "Pennsylvania 6-5000, Pennsylvania 6-5 oh,oh,oh." But later that same year, the Andrews Sisters showcased the full lyric with their own top-5 smash on Decca.

Those familiar with "Lawn Guyland" Jewish geography won't be surprised to know that a significant chunk of the Hotel Pennsylvania's history belongs to an old Great Neck friend I've known since seventh grade, Elie Hirschfeld, who owned and rejuvenated the place between 1983 and 1998.

Elie appreciates the history of the hotel, but also believes it's time for a change. He told me, "I regret losing the Hotel Pennsylvania. When built it was the world's largest hotel with 2,300 rooms and amongst the most luxurious. It was built by the great institution -- the Pennsylvania Railroad -- who engaged the great architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, also responsible for such landmark buildings as the White House East and West Wings, Harvard Business School and the National Museum of American History, to build it. The hotel façade and important columnar entry, in particular, are magnificent. It will be sad for New York to lose this monument, but I can't deny that the hotel has passed its prime. The new building will bring new life to the neighborhood."

Songs have a way of living on when physical objects -- even historic buildings -- come and go. Pennsylvania 6-5000 has, over the past 70 years, been featured in countless movies and TV shows, including The Glenn Miller Story, The Simpsons, American Dad, Twin Peaks, Any Given Sunday, Carol Burnett, The Muppet Show, The Gary Shandling Show, Transylvania 6-5000 and, perhaps best of all, a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Notable covers have included Brian Setzer's rockabillyish reinvention, a ska/jazz version by Heptet, a disco take by Meco and, less gloriously, a mix of Milli Vanilli's Baby Don't Forget My Number.

Call the Hotel Pennsylvania today at (212) PE 6-5000 -- the oldest continuing phone number in New York City -- and you'll still hear Glenn Miller's recording of Pennsylvania 6-5000.

Of course, all things must pass. Those who've seen or stayed at the hotel recently probably won't shed any tears about its destruction. But the smart mega-corporation that takes over should see the branding opportunity, if not the cultural value, in preserving that famous phone number just a little while longer. (Hat tip to Jonathan P. Kahn, another great Great Necker.)

http://www.nypost.com/opinion/cartoons/delonas.htm

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100829/REAL_ESTATE02/308299991

Changing skyline is victory for NYC

By Greg David
August 29, 2010

A few months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, noted New York historian Kenneth Jackson came to Crain's to lead a seminar on what history could tell us about the likely impact of the attacks.

He offered two important lessons. The first was that no disaster had changed the fundamental course of the city's history. He was right to apply that observation to Sept. 11. The terrorist attacks had very little permanent impact on the economy or on the city's attractiveness to individuals or businesses.

The second lesson was that New York's genius, and the key to maintaining its position as the nation's most important city, is based on New Yorkers' willingness to remake the city as its economy changes.

The second insight is crucial to understanding the stakes in last week's face-off between the Malkins, the owners of the Empire State Building, and Vornado, which wants to build a massive skyscraper almost as high as the famous landmark on the site of the virtually derelict Hotel Pennsylvania.

The Malkins deserve kudos for the way they have revitalized the Empire State Building. Their progress is evident from their leasing successes. They are close to signing the city's biggest lease of the year.

However, their campaign to block Vornado's tower and create a 12-block zone in which no large office building could be built to compete with the ESB is misguided. Cloaked in the guise of what's good for the aesthetic of New York, this is nothing more than protectionism for their profits. If they had succeeded, it would have come at a big cost to the city's economy.

New York simply is not building enough modern Class A office space to keep pace with the changing need of businesses. In recent years, the city has added an average of only 2 million square feet of office space annually, and the average age of existing office buildings is 57 years.

If the city doesn't build more as the economy improves, it will simply not have the room that financial services companies, law firms or media enterprises will need, and they will have to go elsewhere. The Vornado project is one part of the solution to that problem.

No matter what the Malkins do, they simply can't transform the Depression-era ESB into the type of space that's needed. It will never be home to a Morgan Stanley or a News Corp. or a Condé Nast.

The best news from last week is that the City Council agreed with Mr. Jackson. In words the historian would have heartily endorsed, Leroy Comrie of Queens asked, “Is New York City a snapshot taken in 2010 to be held in perpetuity, or is the city an evolving, dynamic entity?''

[Dac150]

That article is completely on the mark and justifies the need for this building and others like it.

[hunser]

i know many people said it before, but 15 penn needs a place in the NY diagram. the more so because it has been approved.

[NYguy]

^ I'm sure someone'll get on that...

Meanwhile, here's another look alike...(China WTC)

Ingrid Vande Velde

[RobertWalpole]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...l?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth

[NYguy]

^ Good info...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703618504575459732876001478.html

On the Horizon, a New Manhattan Skyline



Anton Troianovski
August 30, 2010

Developers are readying two residential towers that will rise above most of Midtown. The massive mixed-use development planned west of Penn Station would transform Manhattan's skyline as viewed from New Jersey. Downtown, the transformation is already happening, with the warped, metallic skin of Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower looming over the neighborhood around City Hall and, at Ground Zero, 1 World Trade Center already rising to 36 stories.

Some of the proposed alterations to the city's skyline have been opposed. Vornado Realty Trust's plan to build a tower near Penn Station attracted criticism from people wanting to preserve the Empire State Building's iconic spot.

But the new projects are being propelled by powerful forces. The City Council's near-unanimous approval of the Vornado project is a sign that elected officials are much more concerned about producing jobs than aesthetic concerns. "They were saying New York needs new buildings," says Carol Willis, director of the Skyscraper Museum. "Before that, I would've said that New Yorkers like their city just fine the way it looks right now."

At the same time, backers of these projects are pointing out that the city needs to modernize office space to preserve its competitive position against other global cities like London and Hong Kong. In a letter to shareholders this year Vornado Chairman Steve Roth said the 40 million square feet of office space along Park Avenue from Grand Central Terminal to 59th Street is, on average, 45 years old. He called on the city to allow for denser construction on the avenue to give builders an incentive to tear down old buildings and create new and larger towers.

As the economic doldrums wear on, the city's politicians seem to be coming around to that idea. "We need new, modern buildings to accommodate the new business model that's out there today all over the world," Mark Weprin, chairman of the City Council's subcommittee on zoning and franchises, said at a press conference before last week's council meeting.

Of course, most of the projects aren't going to move ahead until the economy improves, more financing becomes available and demand for commercial space and apartments picks up. Rents in top-tier Manhattan office buildings are still some 20% off their peak. "This is still at least a year or two from the right circumstances for a deal, let alone construction," Michael Knott, who tracks office landlords for real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors, said of the prospects for Vornado's 15 Penn Plaza. "Getting approvals now is just prudent planning, not a signal to ready the cranes."

Some projects that got going before the bust are moving forward. The Beekman Tower, Forest City Enterprises Inc.'s $800 million, Frank-Gehry-designed residential skyscraper has already reached its 867-foot height. It's close to the 792-foot Woolworth Building, another iconic tower that was once the tallest in the world and has since been dwarfed by modern skyscrapers.

At the World Trade Center site, two office towers are already rising and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last week cemented a deal with developer Larry Silverstein that allows him to continue with building Tower 4 and promises as much as $600 million in public support for Tower 3.

Meantime, in Midtown, developer Gary Barnett is building a 1,000-foot residential tower on 57th Street thanks in part to financing from his Middle East partners.

Other projects are going to have to wait. Mr. Silverstein also plans a 912-foot-tall hotel and condo tower at 99 Church St., on the same block as the Woolworth Building, once financing becomes available. The city has also approved a 1,050-foot-tall tower next to the Museum of Modern Art to be built by Houston-based property giant Hines, but the company said the project's timing hasn't been determined.

Related Cos. and a subsidiary of a Canadian pension fund signed a $1 billion lease with the Metropolitan Transit Authority in May that will allow the partnership to develop a massive complex of residential and commercial buildings west of Penn Station that are planned to be as high as 850 feet. A Related spokeswoman said the developer hopes to start construction as early as 2012.

..Before the recession hit, developers Moinian Group and Brookfield Properties Corp. also floated West Side towers, proposed to be more than 1,000 feet tall. "There's not much going on at the moment but it's definitely something we're excited about for the future," a Brookfield spokesman said of the company's project, at Ninth Avenue and 33rd Street. Moinian wants to build a 1,060-foot office and residential tower nearby, but construction won't start before 2013, a spokesman said.

Buildings such as those could have a greater impact on some well-known views of the Empire State Building than 15 Penn Plaza, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. "The idea that nothing is happening on the West Side that has any impact on the Empire State Building views that would allow that postcard to remain frozen in time is not the case," Ms. Quinn said at the press conference. "There are already buildings that the city has acted upon that will go up when the market bears that will change the views from…New Jersey, " she said at the press conference.

If developers do get around to constructing high-rises around the Empire State Building, it "becomes something like the Woolworth Building," said Thomas Hanrahan, dean of the School of Architecture at the Pratt Institute. "It wouldn't diminish or make the Empire State Building any less extraordinary than it already is."

[hunser]

exciting times. in 2013 many huge towers will be completed as 1WTC, 4WTC and C 57. and after that we'll get another massive construction boom with 3 & 2WTC, the girasole, tower verre etc.

[NYguy]

It's good to get people in the city talking about the skyline again, (and for something other than the WTC). The ESB/15 Penn battle has caused more people to look at what's been happening and what's planned around the city.


http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/08/the_ungainly_monoliths_of_manh.html
The Ungainly Monoliths of Manhattan’s Future



Justin Davidson
8/30/10

Manhattan’s skyline is about to change — not today, maybe not tomorrow, but as soon as the economy perks up, and when it does the Empire State Building will lose its splendid isolation. New York seems to have mixed feelings about this. Last week, the same City Council that stunted Jean Nouvel’s proposed MoMA Tower allowed the 1,216-foot future tower at 15 Penn Plaza to creep into competition with the icon of icons.

But the battle over this one building’s height is a distraction from the coming cavalcade of skyscrapers. Two of the projected four World Trade Center towers are already sprouting. A 1,000-foot apartment building is going up across 57th Street from Carnegie Hall. A pair of proposed giants collectively called Manhattan West may one day loom over Ninth Avenue at 33rd Street.

Height is not a problem — the skyline should remain as dynamic as the city, and the obvious direction for change is up. Architecturally, though, the next boom already looks disappointing. To get a sense of how the future skyline will look, check out the Bank of America tower at 1 Bryant Park, a bulky glass stele that executes a modest twist to lend itself an air of grace.

Pelli Clarke Pelli’s uninspired design for 15 Penn Plaza is a harbinger of a bigger, beefier West Side, as office towers follow residential towers in the march toward the Hudson. These will not be the elongated masonry pyramids of the twenties, stepping back as they go up, nor will they be the modernist office towers of a generation ago, rising uniformly like vertical blocks.

“Look at the family of new buildings that are being proposed, from the World Trade Center towers to Hudson Yards,” says Rafael Pelli, the lead architect for 15 Penn Plaza. “They are fundamentally different animals.”

In the new business behemoths, a few indentations or judicious asymmetries set off the taut seamlessness of their skins. The top of 15 Penn Plaza will curve slightly inward as if embarrassed by its massiveness. Vertical folds in the curtain wall on each façade and at each corner resemble slits in a satin gown worn by an elephant.

These are not so much whims of style as forms shaped by technology and the demands of the most valued tenants. Financial firms may be in moral disrepute at the moment, but they still dominate the prime office market, and they require enormous, column-free trading floors and high ceilings. Large, populous floors in turn mean a few more high-speed elevators, which get packed into a thicker concrete core. Glass walls are necessary to keep the inner cubicles from feeling sepulchral, and besides, they offset higher cooling costs with thrifty lighting systems. Quiet and efficient air-conditioning ducts take up space between floors, meaning that 80 stories need a lot more height than they once did.

At 15 Penn Plaza, these efficiencies were added to conditions negotiated with an assortment of city agencies: extra-wide sidewalks to relieve congestion, a new pedestrian tunnel linking Sixth and Seventh Avenues, a set of freshly renovated subway exits, and plentiful retail on the lower floors — all in exchange for a huge zoning bonus in allowable floor space. These civic virtues benefit everyone who walks by or below the tower, but at the same time, the bouquet of constraints adds up to a building that is largely formed even before the architects begin designing.

Aesthetic arguments always seem feeble against such calculations, but the unsentimental efficiency that built this city is poised to raise a crop of ungainly monoliths.

________________________________________________________________________


http://dnainfo.com/20100830/midtown/midt...-for-neighborhood-construction-onslaught
Midtown Braces for Three of the Nation's Biggest Construction Projects

Jill Colvin
August 30, 2010

After the City Council approved the construction of a skyscraper that will rival the Empire State Building, those who live at its feet are bracing for the consequences.

The new tower set to soar over West 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue, the site of the current Hotel Pennsylvania, is just one of three multi-billion dollar construction projects set to transform Midtown's 34th Street transit hub over the coming decade. And those who live near-by wonder if it's too much development for three blocks to handle.

"I feel like lying down in front of the hotel and letting them run over me with a bulldozer," said Bonnie Edwards, 57, a lawyer who has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years. "It's crazy. How do they expect people to be working in the midst of all this development?"

In addition to the skyscraper, known as 15 Penn Plaza, construction is already underway in New Jersey on the $8.7 billion Access to the Region's Core project — one of the largest transportation projects in the nation — which will bore two new train tunnels under the Hudson River to double capacity to Midtown. The project includes a new train station beside Penn Station, a handful of new subway entrances and the demolition of numerous buildings nearby.

On the other side of Penn Station, the James A. Farley Post Office is set to begin its billion-dollar transformation into the new Moyninan Station this fall. While the Empire State Development, which is overseeing the project, refused to provide details, the project will likely include at least one new 1 million-plus square-foot office tower, according to Friends of Moynihan Station.

Tom Smith, 34, who lives within two blocks of 15 Penn Plaza said the onslaught of development is just too much too fast for those who live and work nearby. Already, he said, there's dust in the air and jackhammers blaring "at all hours."

"It's obviously a disruption on multiple fronts," he said. "If you live in the neighborhood you definitely have to bear the cost."

At a subcommittee hearing before the tower was approved, Community Boards 5 district manager Wally Rubin urged the city to consider the long-term impact on the neighborhood, including how it will deal with added traffic on streets that are already painfully clogged.

Instead, the City Council's discussion focused mainly on cries from the owners of the Empire State Building that 15 Penn Plaza would block its view, the developer's commitment to minority hiring, and the estimated 7,000 new jobs and billions in economic activity the project is expected to bring.

After the vote, Community Board 5 chair Vikki Barbero said she was "distressed and dismayed" by the fact that so little attention had been paid to their concerns.

But Nicole Kolinsky, a spokeswoman for Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who represents the area, said Quinn met with the community board multiple times, and that Vornado Realty Trust, the developer, modified its plans to address some of the community's concerns, including transit upgrades.

Some residents were resigned to the fact that chaos is part of life in Midtown.

"Seventh Avenue is busy enough as it is," Jason Herman, 33, a rabbi who has lived in the area for five years, said about the prospect of increased crowds being attracted by all the projects. "It's not going to be that much of a difference."