Adding a Notch to the City Skyline
Part I. Introduction. The developers of a $545-million complex on the west side of Manhattan hope their project, like its predecessor on the site, is going to be a crowd-pleaser.
The 3.7-acre site was once a location Madison Square Garden, where young and old enthusiasts watched large-scale events that ranged from circus performances to boxing matches. That structure was demolished and replaced with a new Garden at another site more than 20 years ago, and the block has been used for surface parking ever since.
T
he
new owner, New York Communication Center Associates, is giving the
site, just one block from Broadway, a chance for a comeback.
Communication Center Associates is a joint venture of four New York
City companies – The Zeckendorf Co., World Wide Realty Corp.,
Arthur G. Gohen and KG Land New York Corp., an affiliate of Japan’s
Kumagai Gumi Co. Ltd.
Architect
David Childs, a partner in the New York City office of Skidmore,
Owings and Merrill, designed the master plan fro the site.
Acknowledging that he was in the unusual position of having a full
city block to design. Childs says he wanted to create a neighborhood
of impact. “The project, called World Wide Plaza, was “planned as
a mirror image” to the initial grouping of buildings at
Rockefeller Center, three blocks to the east. Although the
initial Rockefeller Center was commercial and World Wide Plaza is a
mixed-use project, both have separate lowers that step down on
the site.
Between the towers on each site is a ` plaza with public seating and a large outdoor sculpture. Both plazas can be reached by the public horn three directions and both are skirted by a narrow drive designed as a drop-off point for people entering the tallest tower.
At World Wide Plaza, the massing of the project steps down from the 53-story commercial tower to a 41-story residential tower and again to a U -shaped pattern of 7 to 10-story townhouses that ring the western edge of the site. The steps leading into the townhouses provide the same relationship to the street as the tenement walk-ups directly opposite.
Part II. Class tower. Childs, who designed the commercial tower as well as doing the master plan, says the tower's design is "classically derived. The spandrels in the glazed brick exterior are set back to define the verticality of the shaft, "like the pin stripes on a suit," he says. "It's clearly like New York in character, but a solid, geometric, modern office building." The four-story sections that intersect each of the tower's four corners are clad with granite. Windows are dear glass.
Architect Frank Williams and Associates, New York City, designed the residential tower and townhouses. The residential tower is accessed directly from the public plaza, which is designed to promote pedestrian traffic. Six theatres will be constructed beneath the plaza. For privacy, residents will share a private courtyard inside the ring of residential buildings.