NEW YORK | 200 Greenwich - 2 WTC | 1,270 FT | 80 FLOORS | ON HOLD

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by vandelay

Awesome models. I don't understand what Foster was trying to accomplish with the pinnacle on this building. All the irregular shapes makes it look awkward and misshapen.

Here's the mumbo jumbo
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/pro...7/default.aspx

A key component in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, this seventy-nine-storey building at 200 Greenwich Street continues the practice’s investigations into the nature of the office tower. One of the most important urban planning and architectural challenges of recent times, the concept is driven by memory; but equally it is motivated by a sense of rebirth, its sparkling glazed crystalline form and diamond-shaped summit forming a bold new addition to the New York skyline.

The building occupies a pivotal position at north-east corner of Memorial Park, and its profile reflects this role as a symbolic marker. Arranged around a central cruciform core, the shaft is articulated as four interconnected blocks with flexible, column-free office floors that rise to level sixty-four, whereupon the building is cut at angle to address the Memorial below. Function rooms within the summit have spectacular views of the river, the park and the city. The core arrangement on the office floors allows for cross-corridor circulation, providing orientation and opening up views. The core culminates in flexible zones – places to locate staircases between floors or create double-height atria – which allows tenants to adapt the floors to suit their specific needs. Designed to meet the highest energy ratings, the project takes forward many of the ideas explored in the Hearst Tower and similarly aims to achieve the gold standard under the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design programme (LEED).

Connections with the city at ground level are reinforced by glass walls, which create a visual relationship with the surrounding streets. The triple-height lobby is connected at the Greenwich Street entrance to the MTA providing direct access to the underground system. The lobby rises in level along Vesey Street and includes a further connection with the transport system via escalators and a four-storey shopping area connecting with Fulton Street and spilling out on to the Wedge of Light plaza.

[hunser]

wonderful stuff STR, 2WTC is my favourite tower, right after 1WTC. i like the views on the upper floors.

[STR]

Originally Posted by vandelay

Awesome models. I don't understand what Foster was trying to accomplish with the pinnacle on this building. All the irregular shapes makes it look awkward and misshapen.

That's kind of the cool thing about them, some angles look crooked and jumbled, others show a very ordered arrangement. Design wise, the diamonds start with the four towers in one concept that breaks up the building's horizontal bulk, as this is a very wide tower (230 feet). The diamonds express and enhance this four towers concept, as well as give the building a distinctive outline.

It's also entirely possible I screwed up the angles slitghtly. This thing is damn tricky.

[patriotizzy]

^^^^ Jesus Christ STR, you are a Godsend. When all the towers are finished, you should do comparison shots of the finished buildings and your renders.

[STR]

^Do that with the renders of 7WTC? I actually don't think these things would look nearly as good if the prototype building wasn't already done.

[vandelay]

No I think the renders are bang-on. You should be doing this professionally, if you don't already. Those diamonds just don't fit the rest of the building, which is very elegant. I would go so far as to prefer a flat top or a single sloping diamond.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by JoePDX

Comes to their senses? The building is tall enough. What are you a size queen? LOL If the roof height were the same as the original twin it would more or less match the roof height of tower 1 of the new world trade center building which is NOT in the master plan for the complex. Remember?,,its a gradual descending spiral of buildings from tower one thru 5(if there is a five).

Just A. my opinion and B. a mere suggestion, nothing to get your panties in a bunch over.

Who cares if it matches the roof height, the spire of 1WTC is still 400 feet higher which means there will still technically be a spiral.

[STR]

Redoing the top of the building, did a test render here, and I like it.

[banned]

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/1507/t223.jpg

What's the box between 1WTC and 2WTC?

[thelanetrain17]

^ the performing arts center (which i think is way out of place there but thats just me). Has there been any progress on this building.

[Zapatan]

Man STR, you make this tower look better than any of the renderings, and that's an understatement.

[nim3]

NOW I dont mind this, its beautiful modern architecture.........the interesting thing it that it has metal tube framing............

[STR]

^I think it's structurally very similar to Towers 1 & 7. There's a thick concrete core, with steel floors and outer columns (16, if I recall correctly).

Originally Posted by thelanetrain17

^ the performing arts center (which i think is way out of place there but thats just me). Has there been any progress on this building.

Last I read, it was being put off because the site it current occupies is being used for the PATH station. They're not really going to do anything with it until the transit hub is done in the next year or so. I think Frank Gehry is no longer associated with it (thank God) since he apparently bailed when things went low-key.

^I think it's structurally very similar to Towers 1 & 7. There's a thick concrete core, with steel floors and outer columns (16, if I recall correctly).

Originally Posted by thelanetrain17

^ the performing arts center (which i think is way out of place there but thats just me). Has there been any progress on this building.

Last I read, it was being put off because the site it current occupies is being used for the PATH station. They're not really going to do anything with it until the transit hub is done in the next year or so. I think Frank Gehry is no longer associated with it (thank God) since he apparently bailed when things went low-key. There's still fundraising for it. I honestly think the site is better off without it. The World Trade Center was never a center of high art (aside from the roving artist community that was allowed to essentially squat in unrented floors). The WTC was a pop art icon, and home to giant corporate art pieces, if you want high culture, the WFC winter garden does things from time to time. I think the location is better suited as either more retail and low-midrise office space, or some open space that isn't a living graveyard, as the one across the street is never going to be appropriate for fun. Though tourists will probably improperly ham it up like they do today.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

Originally Posted by STR

this one is just breath taking it makes you realize just how tall this one will be, thanks STR!:

[STR]

I finished redoing the crown yesterday, as well as fixing all the little problems here and there, so the exterior is 100% done. Though, I'm still messing with the materials. I need to make the stainless steel look a lot more like steel.

EDIT: Following up my previous post, I think a hotel would be a great use of the arts center plot. While current LM hotel space is sufficient for current needs, we're going to drop 11 million square feet of office space there, I'm not sure supply will meet demand.

[winlinmac001]

@STR, They were suppose to originally use the rear of Tower 2 (Facing the Millennium Hotel) as a 100-Room Hotel. I still think developers should re-consider that area for Hotel Space with retail space occupying the first four floors (as originally planned).

[STR]

^Yeah, I recall something like that from when we just had the Libeskind site plan and placeholder buildings. The actual tower, as designed by Foster, really isn't set up for that without major alterations. You need more floors, smaller floor plates, and a totally new lobby.

I get that some people would prefer a room view out to Church St rather than the memorial...but given that I dislike the arts center, and given the size of its plot, there isn't too much you can do there. For a hotel, the size works out really well.

On top of all that, we do need a WTC6, otherwise it will jump straight from 5 to 7. We can't have that, now can we?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by STR

On top of all that, we do need a WTC6, otherwise it will jump straight from 5 to 7. We can't have that, now can we?

There are a few other buildings that can serve as 6 (the PAC, the Memorial Pavillion) or they can do like everyone else in Manhattan and shift the addresses even further off site. The hotel space was originally intended for Tower 2, but the decision was put off where to actually put it now. They can shift it to the tower 5 site, which had a couple of hotels open practically next door recently. Then there's Silverstein's planned 30 Park, practically around the corner from Tower 2, which will have a 22-story Four Seasons at the base.

[uaarkson]

STR, may I request a render of the entire new/old WTC complex side by side?

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

this one is just breath taking it makes you realize just how tall this one will be, thanks STR!:

eeeh... hate to be a downer but the original, especially counting the mass of it was quite a bit larger