We are talking about 10.5 hectares of rails surrounded by parking lots and warehouses. They span six blocks along the West Side Highway and the Hudson River. The city authorities set a task for the developers: to master this space without interfering with the work of the railway. The bidders were asked to block the tracks with a concrete platform, on which low-rise buildings and a new city park could be located, and the remaining space could be occupied by residential and office towers. The total usable area of commercial real estate in the new complex (ie, a source of income for the developers participating in the competition) may be up to 1.2 million square meters. m.
The harsh conditions of the organizers forced all participants to place high-rise buildings on vacant lots in the northern and southern parts of the territory they proposed, shifting residential buildings to the west so that their windows overlook the Hudson.
Related Companies, with the support of a potential tenant, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, commissioned Robert A. Stern, Cohn Pedersen Fox and Arcitectonics to develop their project. They see a 74-story skyscraper as the center of the complex, surrounded by three smaller towers. It will also include a huge shopping mall, a park and a new plaza that will be used for advertising, film screenings and outdoor concerts by Murdoch's News Corporation.
Cesar Pelli and FXFowle (developers Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust) worked for another tenant, Conde Nast Publication. He will own the highest tower of the ensemble, which will be complemented by a number of residential buildings to the west. Curved pedestrian bridges will connect the buildings of the complex, passing over the park space.
Helmut Jahn, along with landscape architect Peter Walker (developers Tischman Speyer Properties), placed four huge skyscrapers on the sides of the building plot. Between them there is a rounded square connected to the park and city streets by a wide staircase.
Brookfield Properties invited Diller Scofidio & Renfro, SOM and the Japanese workshop SANAA to work on their project. They propose to build office towers along the 10th Avenue highway, next to a shopping center and a hotel, dividing the park into two parts and fencing it off from the city.
The most architecturally interesting project of Stephen Hall for developers Extell Development Company. Hall suggests placing most of the commercial space in three interconnected towers in the northeast corner of the site. They are connected at the top by a huge viewing platform. Another group of three high-rise buildings is complemented by six lower structures, which the architect called “sun slices”. They are arranged in such a way that the sun, depending on the time of day and season, illuminates one or the other part of the park during the day. This park will not be built on a concrete platform: instead, Hall designed a 7.5-hectare light cable-stayed structure, a curved valley with collected rainwater flowing along the bottom. The project also includes the construction of an open theater, a concert hall and a sculpture garden.
