Manhattan Districts 1/2/5 Garage
Architects: Dattner Architects with WXY Architecture + Urban Design; Program: Infrastructure; Location: New York, NY; Completion: 2014
Most of the primary skin of curtain wall has been installed and the cladding of the secondary layer of perforated metal fins is underway. The fins will counteract the long horizontal structure with vertical articulation and sun mitigation for the building's western orientation adjacent to the West Side Highway. When completed, the garage will house over 150 sanitation vehicles for the NYC Department of Sanitation in a LEED Gold certified structure in NYC's Active Design program.
56 Leonard Street
Architects: Herzog & de Meuron; Program: Residential; Location: New York, NY
Work has progressed slowly on Herzog & de Meuron's first New York project, with concrete superstructure barely surpassing ten floors after starting construction in the spring of 2013. The residential tower will reach a height of 821 feet (250 m) with 145 unique apartments on 57 floors. Units will shift outward from the rectangular envelope at various locations to create balconies that also provide visual interest to the tower, though much of this strategy occurs in the floors closest to the street and in the penthouses on the top nine floors. On typical floors much of the visual effect of shifting volumes is achieved by conventional slab extensions that form balconies with glass railing. The exterior envelope is conceptually a basic window wall construction where glass units rest on and are anchored to the slab, which is left exposed at its edges. Here, the architects have shaped the concrete slab edge with a concave form to provide a refined look to an otherwise banal detail. For now, planned completion is estimated for 2016 by the architects.
432 Park Avenue
Work has progressed past the half way mark on New York City's tallest residential tower. Steel structure for the retail areas at the base of the building are visible above the construction fence. When completed, the tower will rise to 1379' (420 m) and join the collection of luxury towers rising along 57th Street.
Field Update: Hunter's Point South Commons and Hunter's Point South Crossing
Work is well underway on the first two towers of the 30 acre Hunters Point South development in Queens. Once slated to be the Morphosis designed Olympic Village for the failed 2012 Olympic bid, the site's new master plan calls for a mixed use development with approximately 60 percent affordable to middle income units. Phase One calls for 2 towers of 37 and 32 stories with over 900 affordable units, 20,000 square feet of retail, and a new public school building. The SHoP Architects designed towers are expected to be completed by 2015, while the school and the adjacent waterfront park are already completed and operational.
Field Update: Jerome L. Greene Science Center
The first building in Columbia University's Manhattanville expansion has recently topped out and awaits its sleek, glassy facade. It is slated to open in the fall of 2016 alongside The Lenfest Center for the Arts and the Forum building.
432 Park Avenue
Construction has reached to approximately the 29th story at the site of New York's soon to be tallest tower by roof elevation. Reaching to a height of 1,398 feet, the 84 story Rafael Vinoly designed tower will surpass One World Trade Center's roof height of 1,368 feet. Installation continues in seemingly random order on the 100 square foot windows that puncture the concrete grid of the exterior wall. Now that the tower has surpassed the one third mark for superstructure, it should become far more prevalent in skyline views from the park and around the city this fall.
Field Update: 50 United Nations Plaza
Norman Foster's residential tower near the United Nations topped out in June and work is now accelerating on the striking glass curtain wall. The faceted oval bays of the facade facing the United Nations Plaza have been enclosed up to the 17th floor with work progressing less rapidly on the identical west facade. In all, the tower will reach 41 floors with additional floors for mechanical systems above. It appears that the tower is well on its way to meeting its expected completion sometime in 2014.
Field Update: 400 Park Avenue South
Structure has reached the half way point at Portzamparc's 42 story geometrical tower, one of a new crop of towers that draws similarities to the recent Bank of America Tower. The massing combines two main rectangular volumes with more geometrically playful elements on either side and at the corner of the block. Curtain wall has progressed to the seventh floor, helping to reveal the complexity of the project's geometry with the amount of non standard glazing unit shapes.
Manhattan Districts 1/2/5 Garage
SoHo's controversial Department of Sanitation Garage is progressing from structure to exterior envelope as the first layer of its double skin curtain wall begins installation on the southern facade. The first layer of standard, unitized curtain wall will be overlaid with a second layer of custom designed, perforated metal fins to enliven a large infrastructure project with some of the glamour of SoHo and appease the detractors that live nearby. Combined with the green roof that will cap the garage, this project is seeking certification for LEED Gold status.
Field Update: Governors Island
West 8 recently led a weekend hard hat tour of phase one of their transformation of Governors Island into a world class park. This first phase focuses on the southern portion of the island starting from the Liggett Arch which will be the gateway into the Liggett Terrace and Hammock Grove. West 8's guiding principle has been to transform the flat terrain of the southern half of the island, constructed of fill from past subway excavation, through the creation of topography. To highlight this new constructed topography, multi-functioning precast concrete elements have been installed, providing planting edging and seating. Most of those elements have been installed and will soon contain the multitude of plants when the first phase opens sometime in late fall.