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It says tower could start in 2015
Veteran Team Designs Tower
Eugene Kohn, Kevin Roche Collaborate on Design for 55 Hudson Yards
http://online.wsj.com/articles/veteran-team-designs-tower-1401846491
A rendering of 55 Hudson Yards, in foreground. Construction of the 51-story building could begin in 2015. BY-ENCORE courtesy of Related/Oxford
Related Cos.' search for a fresh face to design its latest skyscraper on Manhattan's far West Side spurred a collaboration between two veteran giants of the city's architectural world.
Eugene Kohn, 83 years old, of Kohn Pedersen Fox, and Kevin Roche, 92, of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates LLC, teamed up after Related Chairman Steven Ross told Mr. Kohn to bring in an outside architect for 55 Hudson Yards.
The reason: to cultivate a range of aesthetics for Related's buildings in the area. Mr. Kohn's partner, William Pedersen, has two buildings already under construction in Hudson Yards.
"We really see Hudson Yards as being diverse in architectural styles, a potpourri of top architects," said Jay Cross, president of Related Hudson Yards.
Related with its partner, Oxford Properties Group, was set Wednesday to unveil the design of the 1.3 million-square-foot building, which will rise 50 stories at the northeast corner of 11th Avenue and West 33rd Street. It is expected to cost about $1 billion to build.
"Architectural collaborations happen all the time, because somebody wants the points of view these people represent." said James S. Russell, an architecture critic and author. With their recent projects, he added, Messrs. Roche and Kohn "have gone in a classical vein, and both started their careers as Modernists."
And before now, the two men hadn't worked together.
Mr. Roche's most celebrated Manhattan building is the 1960s-era headquarters of the Ford Foundation at 320 E. 43rd St. His most recent office tower in New York is 750 Seventh Ave., near West 49th Street, completed in 1991. He is also known for work with cultural organizations, including expansion projects at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mr. Kohn hasn't designed a major building in New York. He has led teams on some Philadelphia high-rises, including One Logan Square and the Four Seasons Hotel. He is highly regarded as his firm's deal maker, a force for bringing together parties required to make a project happen.
"We agreed to develop the conceptual framework together," said Mr. Kohn, whose firm remained the lead on the project. "We tried a number of schemes. I would send him something and he would respond, and it got better and better."
Mr. Kohn said he was inspired by Mr. Roche's Ford Foundation. "I always loved his expression of the tower of that building, the sense of elegance and strength," he said. "It expressed structure in the way we were trying to do."
Their new building is a gesture to the elegant facades of the SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District but it is to be built on a structure stemming from their own midcentury Modernist roots; 55 Hudson Yards will consist of a 41-story tower with floors covering 28,000 square feet each that will be atop a 10-story base, which will have floors of 44,000 square feet each.
"The thing I wanted to avoid was another twisted building," said Mr. Roche, in a reference to some contemporary towers with torqued facades. "Surely there's a way to design a building that's simple and straightforward, that meets the needs of the developers and occupants—a basic, fundamental sculpture."
Eventually, Mr. Roche's involvement in the project tapered off, and Mr. Kohn's team took over. Mr. Roche described his role as "an early design consultant."
Mr. Cross said he would green-light construction at 55 Hudson Yards when 30% to 40% of the building's space is pre-leased.
He said he believed that level of leasing could be achieved in time for an early 2015 groundbreaking—and an early 2018 opening.
The new tower at 10 Hudson Yards, anchored by Coach Inc., is scheduled to open in 2015. The one at 30 Hudson Yards, with its lead tenant, Time Warner Inc., is set to open in late 2018 or early 2019. Both were designed by Mr. Pedersen.