Daniel Libeskind recently unveiled a soaring green skyscraper for New York that is constructed of mostly glass and stands to be the city’s tallest residential structure at 900 feet. Dubbed the New York Tower at One Madison Avenue, the 54-story apartment building features a series of ‘sky gardens‘ cut out from its facade that provide green space and terraced balconies for residents. Terraced gardens are becoming quite popular as a means for people to have an outdoor connection, fresh air, and even a place to grow their own food.
There’s a certain competitiveness involved in designing a skyscraper that drives designs to be bigger, better, greener and more innovative. Often the designs for skyscrapers are unveiled and promoted extensively by very proud architects. Daniel Libeskind, on the other hand, has been considerably modest about his newest skyscraper design, which has no other name but the New York Tower.
Rumors have circulated for over a year about the New York Tower, but nothing had been seen of it until recently, when Libeskind’s new book, Counterpoint, was released on November 18th. The pictures you see here were actually scanned from his book, as they are the only known images of the design.
As for the other green amenities, few details have been released. We can most likely expect the residential project to have great great indoor air quality, and be very energy and water efficient thanks to the insular effects of the sky gardens. No word as to whether this project would seek LEED certification. The images you see here were created over a year ago, so it is likely the project has undergone significant changes since and hopefully has become even greener.
As the architect tells New York Magazine, “We didn’t just fill up the tower, we’ve taken space away [from the apartments] to create the gardens,” which are actually balconies tucked within the envelope. “It’s as if nature has come back into the city.”
+ Daniel Libeskind
Via Designboom
I do like the overall design, however not knowing is the “project would seek LEED certification” and is being promoted and marketed as the “Green Tower” is borderline “Greenwashing”. It seem like every architect around the globe is trying to brand themself and monopolize on the green marketing phenomia…
I’m worried about the huge glassfacades and how that would cope with strong winds. I’d imagine it’d work as a huge sail.
The earnest folks at Inhabitat have got to stop being so naive. Stop it. Danny Libeskind? The architect has jumped the shark! You wrote, “…he images you see here were created over a year ago, so it is likely the project has undergone significant changes since and hopefully has become even greener.” Greener? No, it’s “grown” less feasible, less believable, and more preposterous. Your observations are based on a computer rendering (read: not real) of an idea so extravagant as to make a mockery of sustainable practices. “Grow their own food.” This sounds like the latest in green party games: “The experts at Really Expensive and Pretentious Gimmicks will come to your home the day of the party and set up a pretend farm for your guests to play ‘Green Acres.’ Prices start at $250 per head.”
The Met life tower in relation to this seems way to overwhelming. This thing will have a drastic effect on the skyline and seems to be practically scabbed onto the east side of the block virtually towering over the MLT. Love the idea of the setbacked balconies but not at this location, too much of a fan of the MLT and its place in history. I wonder if they even have the permits and go ahead to build already.
Unfortunately, the only similarities between these “design studies” and the actual construction now underway is the extreme height of the building. The cutaway glass fascade is not evident above the fifth floor.
Libeskind is not only a vanguard architect, he is a new language for imaging and creation, he is the meaning of art.
I cannot believe I’ve ever seen a new website using this type of numerous comments in it!
i need a case study on garden apartments ie low rise, low density apartments! i need to study some examples.