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970K views 2K replies 252 participants last post by  A Chicagoan 
#1 · (Edited)
I just saw this while reading the morning news: JPMorgan Plans New Manhattan Headquarters for 15,000 Workers. Source: Bloomberg.

The new building could be as much as 500 feet taller than the current building 270 Park Ave, which is 707 feet (215m). That would yield a 1200 footer!

Excerpt: JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to build a headquarters in midtown Manhattan that would combine other offices into a new, taller building for 15,000 employees on Park Avenue.

The 2.5 million-square-foot (232,000-square-meter) building would be the first major project under New York City’s Midtown East rezoning plan, which encourages new office construction in the area, the bank and Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement Wednesday. JPMorgan’s current headquarters at the same site, 270 Park Ave., is an “outdated facility” that was designed in the late 1950s for about 3,500 employees, the company said.

The headquarters could be between 70 and 75 stories, depending on how wide its footprint is, said a person with knowledge of the company’s plans. The current structure is 52 stories. The new building, which has yet to be designed, could be as much as 500 feet (150 meters) taller than the current headquarters, said the person, who asked not to be identified because details of the plans haven’t been publicly disclosed.
 
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#477 ·
Thats a pretty nice design and Id be happy if thats whats built, so long as the materials are quality. Id change the diamonds to stacked vertical chevrons but thats subjective.

Im worried about them value engineering the facade, but seeing as weve only viewed one model there cant be too much worry in that regard. Yet.
 
#483 ·
Today? :lol:

I thought money was our religion ever since beginning of time, or at least as far back as we can trace the civilization in our Western half of the globe? Both Pagan and Christian.

You think the Parthenon with its (originally) ultra white, disastrously expensive marble (even more expensive today) was built out of nothing?

Or maybe the Lincoln Cathedral was built out of the empty treasury by an institution (the church) who cared not for money?
All that stained glass came out of nothing.

I won't dare speak for the other side of the world, since it's none of my business (or I hope so), but by having many friends from Asia I do get a feeling they're no different compared to us, in regards to this specific issue.
 
#489 ·
^^ Tower Fifth will be directly behind 9 West 57th and to the left of the black tower (Olympic Tower) in the view seen in the photo above and 350 Park just a tad bit to the left. Tower Fifth and 350 Park are both between 51st and 52nd street. So yes, this tower will be almost totally blocked by these two towers in the future when viewed from this angle.
 
#493 ·
Most of the time New York City appears wonderful to me.
However, in the last 2 decades the designs appear to get just as plain as one can imagine.
I do believe it's more of a global repercussion. People see distasteful architecture in Dubai, and they're immediately like: ohhh, we don't want for our cities to end up looking like that. If there is one thing we don't want for our cities to lack that is elegance.

But the question here is: have we went too far?
For me, a good design finds a good balance between being both eccentric and elegant but not plain.

The design we have here, for a building of great status, is just plain. It shouldn't be. Not for this project.
 
#502 ·



Awesome, yet too many flat roofs.

And is it just me or is someone else a tad bothered with the 'sticks above the skyline' effect that these towers create?
Don't get me wrong, I love the height. But they feel a little disjointed from the rest of the city. We would need more 800-to-1100 around to homogenize it all, no? Think Chicago with the Hanock center... You know!?
 
#508 ·
This building is gonna be massive! It will look amazing aside the One Vanderbilt from the Top of the Rock.
 
#510 · (Edited)
I was lately looking at the main entrance in the section diagram that were leaked, or the ground plan that were presented to planning commission. I think the entrance is maybe the area we have arguably the least info about. But still some thinks could be said about it.

I suspect a vertical glass facade for the entrance:


If you look closely - although the thick black outline is diagonal - the yellow colored area is vertical. Two fine vertical lines can also be seen next to the yellow, which not belong to the vertical beams.

By contrast, looking at the mechanical floor above, the green color area follows the diagonal lines.
That mechanical area above the entrance will slope back. It is shown in the street view rendings of madison avenue:

Look at the greyish part between the diagonal beams at the right side of the rendering.

Another thing we can assume is, that the entrance area at park avenue will have diagonal beams, we can assume this by looking at the following ground plan:


You can clearly see the beams in this ground plan.

One thing we have conflicting information about is, where will the facade of the entrance begin?
This might be subject to several design changes.

If we believe the section diagram: We can assume, that the entrance and facade will be located between the joints of the diagonal beams.
The section diagram also shows an additional elevation change at the entrance. Maybe some more steps on the plaza, before the entrance.

If we believe the ground plan: The entrance and facade would be closer to park avenue, with more room for the lobby inside. The facade outline would be similar to that on madison avenue. This also would mean, that the diagonal beams on park avenue, may break through a vertical glass facade.

My instinct goes with the newer section diagram, although it is less detailed. Plus, the ground plan is from an earlier planning stage. In that stage there were a lot of talks between architects and planning committee, how the tower will meet the ground and what public spaces and facilities should be provided. A lot of changes could have been made since then.
I suspect, the entrance would be located at the blue line I added in:


The facade could be hanged between the structural beams. Segmenting the facade and more interesting to look at.

Reducing the lobby would not be a huge problem, IMO. The lobby was huge to begin with. Outside it would create a bigger plaza. Overall the entrance would have a more dramatic effect:
Imagine a big plaza, overhung by a supertall skyscraper supported by massive diagonal beams.
That dramatic effect certainly fits Foster. Think of the entrance of HSBC in Hongkong or the massive atria at Lloyds in London or Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

Plus it would also be something, Foster initially planed for 425 Park avenue.
Video
He might have a chance to realize the plaza, he couldn't build at 425 Park Ave.
 
#512 ·
Tangentially related, Chase might sell 383 Madison as it shrinks its NYC footprint:

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s new Manhattan headquarters is meant to be an ode to both the company and the city -- a monumental glass-and-steel tower that says the nation’s largest bank grew up here. But New York may be losing its luster.

Despite more than two centuries of history in a city synonymous with the global financial industry, JPMorgan is quietly shrinking its workforce there. The bank’s been building up its presence in other locations and is now considering relocating several thousand New York-based employees out of the area to help rein in costs ahead of a possible economic downturn, according to people with knowledge of the bank’s strategy.

One option is to sell the investment-banking headquarters, at 383 Madison Ave. [..]

the bank doesn’t yet have a final tally on how many employees it will keep in New York. One person with knowledge of the talks said the decisions hinge on how many people the bank decides to put at its new headquarters, and whether the bank decides to sell 383 Madison, which was picked up in the fire-sale purchase of Bear Stearns Cos. in 2008 and is serving as a temporary staging area for executives while 270 Park is dismantled. JPMorgan has not yet determined what to do with 383 Madison, and any decision may be years away.[..]

The bank is planning to consolidate its Manhattan operations at 270 Park once construction is complete around 2023.
From Bloomberg.
 
#515 ·
Isnt 383 madison a Bearstern tower
 
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