New Jack City
March 2nd, 2005, 10:30 PM
NY Times
A Cube in the Land of the Wheel
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/03/02/nyregion/gm.184.1.583.jpg
A rendering of a glass cube planned as part of the revamping of the plaza of the General Motors Building.
March 2, 2005
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
having failed sadly in its emulation of Rockefeller Center, the plaza opposite the Plaza will now try being more like the Louvre.
By fall, a glass cube 32 by 32 by 32 feet will be set like a jumbo gemstone into the middle of the plaza of the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue. From the outside, the cube will appear empty. But inside will be a circular glass stairway and a cylindrical elevator leading to a 25,000-square-foot underground space.
In other words, the cube will function like I. M. Pei's Pyramid in the Cour Napoléon of the Louvre: a crystalline marker, a gateway into a subterranean realm. Only the local version will be more transparent - even the structural framework is to be made of glass - and, this being New York in the year 2005, it will usher visitors not to culture but to retail, almost certainly a much larger version of the Apple Computer store in SoHo.
The plaza itself will be relandscaped. The slightly elevated bosque at the south end, reached by wraparound steps, has already disappeared behind construction barriers. Its twin on the north end is also destined for demolition. The new plaza will be on a single level from 58th to 59th Streets, framed at each corner by low, wide, L-shaped parapets.
Two shallow pools will flank the cube, surrounded by movable chairs, tables, planters and a half-dozen honey locust trees. "There are no obstructions and it gives a commodious public space," said Dan Shannon of Moed de Armas & Shannon, which has redesigned the plaza for Macklowe Properties, the new owners of the G.M. Building.
Amanda M. Burden, the chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, who has made the improvement of public space a key goal of her tenure, said yesterday that the plan was a "tour de force in design that returns the G.M. plaza, really, to the public realm."
This is the second attempt in six years to make an amenity out of a privately owned public space that generated a big development bonus in the 1960's for the G.M. Building - almost 200,000 square feet, roughly seven of its 50 floors - but never quite lived up to the civic side of the bargain.
Originally, the central area was depressed 12 feet below the sidewalk in an apparent and unpersuasive homage to the sunken plaza at Rockefeller Center. It was once dominated by the Autopub restaurant. Writing in The New York Times in 1970, Craig Claiborne said, "The waiters and busboys are decked out in garage mechanic outfits, which may be some grim commentary on some aspects of the service."
When Donald J. Trump and the Conseco insurance company bought the building in 1998, the lower plaza was home to a Houlihan's restaurant and slathered in green artificial turf. Under a plan by Thomas Balsley Associates, a landscape architectural firm, the plaza level was raised higher than the surrounding sidewalks.
"My primary purpose was to close that horrible well," Mr. Trump said yesterday. That he did. He was, however, unable to find a retail tenant for the new space created by decking over the sunken plaza.
Even the elevated plaza had its problems, Ms. Burden said. "It used to drop too many levels in grade," she said. "And then they added the ziggurats and people don't like to go up that high. All the grade changes did not invite vitality."
Mr. Balsley said at the time that his goal was a plaza that "becomes part of the fabric of the city." Indeed, the plaza is often a lively place, with crowds in front of the CBS studio during "The Early Show" or "N.F.L. Today" and streaming into F.A.O. Schwarz.
CBS plans to keep using the plaza, said Michael Bass, senior executive producer for "The Early Show," and is now working out future arrangements. An executive vice president of F.A.O. Schwarz, Kim Richmond, said, "We think that when all the construction is done, it will be quite spectacular."
Apple would not comment. "We have not announced any additional retail locations in New York City at this point," said Katie Cotton, the vice president for corporate communications.
Though the cube will be the most-talked-about element of the renovation, it is not the largest change. That will occur along Madison Avenue, where the base of the structure will be extended outward 10 feet and a recessed public space will be eliminated to create a solid, two-story retail wall behind a new glass facade.
In trying to increase the amount of revenue-generating floor area, Samuel H. Lindenbaum and Robert E. Flahive of the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, representing Macklowe Properties, calculated that the G.M. Building, as built, had 1,464,105 square feet of space, or 53,709 square feet less than would have been permitted under the existing zoning formula.
They reasoned that because each square foot of plaza generated 10 bonus square feet of development, that meant 5,371 square feet of public space was not needed for the building to comply with zoning rules.
They also determined that 19,873 square feet of space in the building had been or would be converted to mechanical use. Because this is not counted as floor area by zoning rules, they explained, Macklowe could build the 8,374-square-foot Madison Avenue extension and the 405-square-foot cube, with room to spare.
Now how does a 32-foot cube yield only 405 feet of floor area? Shouldn't it be 1,024? "When you walk into the cube, you have the elevator and the stairs," Mr. Lindenbaum explained, "but the whole floor is not filled in."
Harry Macklowe, the chairman of Macklowe Properties, bought the G.M. Building in 2003 for $1.4 billion. The architectural firm Gensler is working on the renovation with Moed de Armas & Shannon.
With an evident passion for architecture, Mr. Macklowe thought first of modifying the existing retail entrance with a crescent recalling Norman Foster's Canary Wharf Underground station in London. He solicited ideas from Santiago Calatrava and from Mr. Pei, raising the prospect of a Louvre-inspired design.
As Mr. Shannon recalled, Mr. Pei demurred, saying the Pyramid could not fit on the G.M. plaza. To which Mr. Macklowe answered, "I'm only speaking metaphorically."
Last winter, a 40-foot mockup cube, in scaffolding and scrim, was hastily assembled on the plaza one midnight and just as quickly taken down before dawn. Seeing it helped Mr. Macklowe decide that the actual structure ought to be 32 feet, matching the low-rise base of the building.
To preserve the public spirit of the plaza, Ms. Burden said it would be critical that "the cube itself is the advertising" and that signage be kept to a minimum. Apple typically marks its stores wordlessly, with an apple logo.
This recalls the approach taken a century ago by Tiffany & Company, which saw no need to puts its name on its new store at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street, as long as the Atlas statue was out front.
Asked what sort of commercial message would appear on the cube, Mr. Macklowe said: "Nothing. It's word of mouth."
A Cube in the Land of the Wheel
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/03/02/nyregion/gm.184.1.583.jpg
A rendering of a glass cube planned as part of the revamping of the plaza of the General Motors Building.
March 2, 2005
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
having failed sadly in its emulation of Rockefeller Center, the plaza opposite the Plaza will now try being more like the Louvre.
By fall, a glass cube 32 by 32 by 32 feet will be set like a jumbo gemstone into the middle of the plaza of the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue. From the outside, the cube will appear empty. But inside will be a circular glass stairway and a cylindrical elevator leading to a 25,000-square-foot underground space.
In other words, the cube will function like I. M. Pei's Pyramid in the Cour Napoléon of the Louvre: a crystalline marker, a gateway into a subterranean realm. Only the local version will be more transparent - even the structural framework is to be made of glass - and, this being New York in the year 2005, it will usher visitors not to culture but to retail, almost certainly a much larger version of the Apple Computer store in SoHo.
The plaza itself will be relandscaped. The slightly elevated bosque at the south end, reached by wraparound steps, has already disappeared behind construction barriers. Its twin on the north end is also destined for demolition. The new plaza will be on a single level from 58th to 59th Streets, framed at each corner by low, wide, L-shaped parapets.
Two shallow pools will flank the cube, surrounded by movable chairs, tables, planters and a half-dozen honey locust trees. "There are no obstructions and it gives a commodious public space," said Dan Shannon of Moed de Armas & Shannon, which has redesigned the plaza for Macklowe Properties, the new owners of the G.M. Building.
Amanda M. Burden, the chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, who has made the improvement of public space a key goal of her tenure, said yesterday that the plan was a "tour de force in design that returns the G.M. plaza, really, to the public realm."
This is the second attempt in six years to make an amenity out of a privately owned public space that generated a big development bonus in the 1960's for the G.M. Building - almost 200,000 square feet, roughly seven of its 50 floors - but never quite lived up to the civic side of the bargain.
Originally, the central area was depressed 12 feet below the sidewalk in an apparent and unpersuasive homage to the sunken plaza at Rockefeller Center. It was once dominated by the Autopub restaurant. Writing in The New York Times in 1970, Craig Claiborne said, "The waiters and busboys are decked out in garage mechanic outfits, which may be some grim commentary on some aspects of the service."
When Donald J. Trump and the Conseco insurance company bought the building in 1998, the lower plaza was home to a Houlihan's restaurant and slathered in green artificial turf. Under a plan by Thomas Balsley Associates, a landscape architectural firm, the plaza level was raised higher than the surrounding sidewalks.
"My primary purpose was to close that horrible well," Mr. Trump said yesterday. That he did. He was, however, unable to find a retail tenant for the new space created by decking over the sunken plaza.
Even the elevated plaza had its problems, Ms. Burden said. "It used to drop too many levels in grade," she said. "And then they added the ziggurats and people don't like to go up that high. All the grade changes did not invite vitality."
Mr. Balsley said at the time that his goal was a plaza that "becomes part of the fabric of the city." Indeed, the plaza is often a lively place, with crowds in front of the CBS studio during "The Early Show" or "N.F.L. Today" and streaming into F.A.O. Schwarz.
CBS plans to keep using the plaza, said Michael Bass, senior executive producer for "The Early Show," and is now working out future arrangements. An executive vice president of F.A.O. Schwarz, Kim Richmond, said, "We think that when all the construction is done, it will be quite spectacular."
Apple would not comment. "We have not announced any additional retail locations in New York City at this point," said Katie Cotton, the vice president for corporate communications.
Though the cube will be the most-talked-about element of the renovation, it is not the largest change. That will occur along Madison Avenue, where the base of the structure will be extended outward 10 feet and a recessed public space will be eliminated to create a solid, two-story retail wall behind a new glass facade.
In trying to increase the amount of revenue-generating floor area, Samuel H. Lindenbaum and Robert E. Flahive of the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, representing Macklowe Properties, calculated that the G.M. Building, as built, had 1,464,105 square feet of space, or 53,709 square feet less than would have been permitted under the existing zoning formula.
They reasoned that because each square foot of plaza generated 10 bonus square feet of development, that meant 5,371 square feet of public space was not needed for the building to comply with zoning rules.
They also determined that 19,873 square feet of space in the building had been or would be converted to mechanical use. Because this is not counted as floor area by zoning rules, they explained, Macklowe could build the 8,374-square-foot Madison Avenue extension and the 405-square-foot cube, with room to spare.
Now how does a 32-foot cube yield only 405 feet of floor area? Shouldn't it be 1,024? "When you walk into the cube, you have the elevator and the stairs," Mr. Lindenbaum explained, "but the whole floor is not filled in."
Harry Macklowe, the chairman of Macklowe Properties, bought the G.M. Building in 2003 for $1.4 billion. The architectural firm Gensler is working on the renovation with Moed de Armas & Shannon.
With an evident passion for architecture, Mr. Macklowe thought first of modifying the existing retail entrance with a crescent recalling Norman Foster's Canary Wharf Underground station in London. He solicited ideas from Santiago Calatrava and from Mr. Pei, raising the prospect of a Louvre-inspired design.
As Mr. Shannon recalled, Mr. Pei demurred, saying the Pyramid could not fit on the G.M. plaza. To which Mr. Macklowe answered, "I'm only speaking metaphorically."
Last winter, a 40-foot mockup cube, in scaffolding and scrim, was hastily assembled on the plaza one midnight and just as quickly taken down before dawn. Seeing it helped Mr. Macklowe decide that the actual structure ought to be 32 feet, matching the low-rise base of the building.
To preserve the public spirit of the plaza, Ms. Burden said it would be critical that "the cube itself is the advertising" and that signage be kept to a minimum. Apple typically marks its stores wordlessly, with an apple logo.
This recalls the approach taken a century ago by Tiffany & Company, which saw no need to puts its name on its new store at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street, as long as the Atlas statue was out front.
Asked what sort of commercial message would appear on the cube, Mr. Macklowe said: "Nothing. It's word of mouth."