SHoP Architects designs skinny skyscraper for New York

News: New York studio SHoP Architects has revealed its design for a 411 metre skyscraper in Manhattan on a plot that is just 13 metres wide.

Proposed for a lot on West 57th Street in Manhattan, the building would be approximately 30 metres taller than the Empire State Building and would feature a stepped facade facing the street.

SHoP Architects designed the residential tower for property developers JDS Development and Property Markets Group, who submitted their plans to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission last month.

It is unknown whether funding for the project has been secured but local sources report that the developer hopes to break ground early next year.

West 57th Street is one of New York’s most fashionable locations and is just two blocks south of Central Park. Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group have also designed a residential building on the street with one corner stretched upwards to form a triangular tower – see more stories from New York.

SHoP Architects is among four firms shortlisted for the redevelopment of New York’s Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden and has also proposed a masterplan for a former sugar refinery in Brooklyn featuring hollow skyscrapers surrounded by gardens – see more SHoP Architects.

Rafael Viñoly’s Walkie Talkie skyscraper in London has been in the news recently for creating a reflection intense enough to melt cars, while the world’s second tallest skyscraper topped out last month in Shanghai, China – see more skyscrapers.

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Four architects reimagine New York’s Penn Station

News: SHoP Architects and SOM are among four firms putting forward their visions for the future of New York’s Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden.

Four architects propose Penn Station
SHoP Architects

In an event at the Times Center last night, the Municipal Art Society of New York also unveiled proposals by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, each reimagining the rail hub and the indoor arena that sits atop it.

Four architects propose Penn Station
SHoP Architects

SHoP Architects proposes to expand the main hall of Penn Station into a bright and airy space surrounded by new parks and amenities. An extension of the High Line – the New York park built along a section of a former elevated railway – would connect the station to a new Madison Square Garden offsite.

Four architects propose Penn Station
SOM

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) put forward a huge expansion of the station centred around a central, transparent ticket hall. Floating above it would be an inverted dome containing offices, apartments and green spaces staggered over multiple levels.

Four architects propose Penn Station
SOM

The proposal by Diller Scofidio + Renfro suggests moving Madison Square Garden across Eighth Avenue and expanding Penn Station upwards to include new amenities such as a theatre and spa.

Four architects propose Penn Station
SOM

Finally, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture proposes shifting Madison Square Garden to a 16-acre platform over the Hudson River at 34th Street, creating cycling and pedestrian promenades and a new 16-acre park.

Four architects propose Penn Station
Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The competition was launched to encourage discussion about the future of the site, which seems increasingly uncertain. While the owners of Madison Square Garden have asked to renew their permit for the site above the station “in perpetuity”, the New York City Planning Commission recently voted to limit it to 15 years, placing a question mark over the arena’s future.

Four architects propose Penn Station
Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Penn Station, which was designed to accommodate around 200,000 passengers a day but now has to deal with around 640,000, is seen by many New Yorkers as inefficient and badly in need of an update.

Four architects propose Penn Station
H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture

Last year the Municipal Art Society invited architects to suggest improvements to New York’s Grand Central Terminal, with SOM coming up with a floating observation deck that slides up and down and Foster + Partners proposing to increase the station’s capacity.

Four architects propose Penn Station
H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture

Other railway stations we’ve published include a Spanish station with a faceted aluminium interior and the vaulted concourse by John McAslan + Partners at King’s Cross Station in London – see all stations and transport hubs.

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Domino Sugar by SHoP Architects and James Corner Field Operations

Manhattan studio SHoP Architects has designed a masterplan of hollow skyscrapers surrounded by gardens for the site of the former Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn.

Working alongside landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, SHoP Architects has planned a mixed-use complex that includes the renovation of the nineteenth century factory, five new buildings, plus a series of public parks, gardens and sports fields.

Domino Sugar by SHoP Architects

The plans replace earlier proposals by Rafael Viñoly for the historic site, which started production as a sugar factory in 1856 but has been out of use since 2004. Viñoly’s proposals proved unpopular with local residents, so developer Two Trees commissioned an alternative that would offer taller buildings but more public spaces.

“If you’re standing next to a 400-foot tall building or a 600-foot tall building, you have no idea,” SHoP principal Vishaan Chakrabarti told New York magazine Curbed. “But if a 600-foot building means that you get a park where your kid can graduate, that means something to you.”

The tallest building in the scheme is a 180-metre tower, which will be positioned beside the Williamsburg Bridge to the south. Other structures will be shorter in height, relating to the scale of buildings to the north and east, and will include a tower with a rectangular void through its middle and a school at its base, plus a 600-unit apartment building. The old factory will be transformed into offices for technology companies and the creative industries.

Domino Sugar by SHoP Architects

The developer plans to push ahead with the project this year and is organising community meetings in the upcoming weeks.

SHoP Architects has worked on a number of high-profile projects recently. The team completed the Barclays sports arena in Brooklyn in September and is also developing a masterplan for a new “silicon” city in Kenya.

New York-based James Corner Field Operations is best known for its role on the High Line, an elevated park on an abandoned railway.

Here’s some more explanation from SHoP Architects:


With Two Trees Management Company, SHoP and Field Operation’s masterplan for the Domino Sugar site replaces a city-approved 2010 plan with a new proposal that adds 60% more publicly-accessible open space on a new, highly accessible street grid; provides for a new 24/7 mix of office, residential, neighborhood retail, community facilities while retaining original commitments for affordable housing; and a new form of open architecture that connects the existing neighborhood to the new quarter-mile waterfront.

Most strikingly, the plan envisions a new skyline for Brooklyn—one that relates to the height of the Williamsburg bridge to the south and scales down to meet the lower buildings across Kent Avenue to the east. Central to the scheme is the renovated Domino Sugar refinery building, which will become the nerve center of the project as a new office building across from a new public space, Domino Square.

The new surrounding buildings are porous, featuring large openings that allow light and air to penetrate through the site and into the neighborhood beyond. While exuberant on the skyline similar to new architecture being built around the world, the buildings responsibly meet the ground and the Williamsburg Street grid.

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Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Manhattan-based firm SHoP Architects has sent us a movie and more images illustrating its masterplan for Konza Techno City, a new “silicon” city 40 miles from Kenya’s capital Nairobi (+ movie).

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: entry plaza

Work is already underway on the pavilion that forms part of the first phase of SHoP Architects’ masterplan for Konza Techno City, a business and technology hub that’s been dubbed Kenya’s “silicon savannah”.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: university campus

The $14.5 billion project will transform an area of grassland into a city of 250,000 residents. The city is expected to generate up to 200,000 jobs by the time its final phase is completed in 2030.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: business district

The first phase, to be built over five years, will house 30,000 residents and be shaped like a row of “stitches” in the overall masterplan, the architects told Dezeen.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: technology and life sciences district

The east-west axis of the first phase includes a boulevard of green spaces with bridges over the wide motorway leading to Nairobi.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: Konza Techno City pavilion

The four initial north-south axes will comprise, from west to east, a university, a residential area, a technology and life sciences district and a business district.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: Konza Techno City pavilion entrance

The stitch pattern is designed as a framework for the later growth of the city, which will be made up of criss-crossing horizontal and vertical bands.

Above: Konza Techno City pavilion entrance

The areas between the bands are expected to grow organically without specific planning.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: masterplan structure

SHoP Architects took over the masterplan after the Kenyan government rejected an earlier proposal by UK-based firm Pell Frischmann, some images from which we included in the launch of Konza Techno City last week.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: phase one

SHoP Architects is the firm behind the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, New York, which includes a 32-storey residential tower set to be the world’s tallest modular building and the Barclays Center, a 19,000-seat indoor sports arena that opened last year.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: green spaces in phase one – click above for larger image

Other masterplans we’ve reported on recently include the redevelopment of Darling Harbour in Sydney by architecture firms OMA, Hassell and Populous and a plan to redesign Futian District in Shenzhen, China, as a “garden city”.

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: phase one programme – click above for larger image

See all masterplans »
See all architecture by SHoP Architects »

Konza Techno City masterplan by SHoP Architects

Above: Konza Techno City pavilion model

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FIT says bring in the light

The Fashion Institute of Technology is getting a much needed face lift to their minimalist concrete box on 7th Avenue in NYC.

SHoP Architects was awarded the winning design in an invited competition to design the Institute’s new street front look. The new addition will add a multi-layered metal and translucent glass facade, as well as primary circulation, review and new exhibition spaces, which will connect to the studio spaces and the skylit student quad on the 5th floor.

For a complete analysis of the design head over to Inhabitat.