Frank Gehry Designs The Tallest Building In NYC

Frank Gehry, one of the most important architects of our age, designed the new 76-story residential tower that will redefine the skyline of Lower Manhattan by the time it is completed in 2012. The Beekman Tower, whose address will be 8 Spruce Street, will be the tallest residential tower in the City and Gehry's first residential project in NYC. The Beekman Tower, Frank Gehry said the integration of bay windows was enough to elevate the building's image, both inside and out, sometimes a little tweak can make a building distinctive. At about 400 feet above the East River, the architect was cheek to cheek with the wispy early morning clouds. The only change that he made from the typical NYC apartment pro-forma was that many of the apartments will have bay windows; a feature often found in historic buildings on the Upper West Side and that those bay windows help give the skyscraper its distinctive shape. Rising just south from the entry ramps to the Brooklyn Bridge, it will join an imposing cluster of landmarks around City Hall, including Cass Gilbert's 1913 neo-Gothic Woolworth Building and McKim, Mead White 1914 Municipal Building. These buildings are early examples of the city's deep romance with the sky. The design has evolved through an unusual public-private partnership. In an agreement with New York City education officials, the tower's developer, Forest City Ratner, agreed to incorporate a public elementary school into the project. Forest City was responsible for the construction of the school; the Department of Education then bought the building from the developer. The Beekman Tower is a curious fusion of public and private zones and features a 1.1 million sq ft structure sheathed in Frank Gehry's signature glass and crumpled stainless steel cladding atop a six-story masonry podium that will accommodate a public school, new public open space, and an ambulatory care center for the adjacent New York City Downtown Hospital. The hospital will take up 25,000 square feet and will have public parking below ground. In addition to 903 market rate rental apartments the Beekman Tower includes a four-story, 100,000 sq ft public school, a 21,000 sq ft ambulatory care center that will be used as doctor’s offices, 13,000 square foot of neighborhood-oriented ground floor retail space, and a 26,000 sq ft of below-grade parking for 175 cars. The Beekman Tower will also feature two through-block public plazas designed by Field Operations in collaboration with Dutch plating designer Piet Outdolf. The Public Elementary School will be sheathed in tan brick, covering the first five floors of the building. It will cover Pre-K through eighth grade. Above the elementary school will be a 903-unit luxury residential tower clad in stainless steel. It will not contain any units for purchase. The apartments will range from 500 to 1,600 square feet, and will consist of studios, one-two-and three-bedrooms. All will be priced at market-rate, with no low or moderate income-restricted apartments. There will be public plazas on both the east and west sides of the building, one 11,000 square feet and the other somewhat smaller. Street-level retail, totaling approximately 1,300-2,500 square feet, is included as part of the project. The dramatic steel of Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower makes it one of the flashiest skyscrapers on the Lower Manhattan skyline. Frank Gehry's best-known work is with museums, concert halls, and private residences but he is not known for skyscrapers. Will the Beekman become a signature piece for the NYC skyline? Maybe considering the fact that it is the tallest residential building in the city, it's one of the first residential towers, and an apartment building that has tried to make an impact on the skyline. I am sure all of these things will make it become of the signature buildings that will help define the skyline of the city. The 900 apartments in the building are expected to be open next spring. Mary Ann Tighe, chairwoman of the powerful Real Estate Board of NYC, predicts that the building will be a triumph; and suggested that the apartments will likely be the most expensive rentals downtown. The reason why it works so well is its unique and looks like nothing else. Now the building, with 80 model apartments and 600 different layouts will consist of 100 percent market-rate rentals. Some floors might be left unfinished for renters wanting to customize their apartments.

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Frank Gehry designs the tallest building in NYC

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