https://www.instagram.com/p/CbGPPoDvVXh/?utm_medium=copy_link
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Gotham Tower
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Great photos, but they must be from a few days ago, because the crane is almost gone now. (Photo from yesterday.)
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Nice!
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Per NYguy:
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That video is titled the “…JDS’ Supertall Skyscraper…” with no mention of the Architects. The ShoP architects deserve credit for not letting this project be All-About-Them: often giving the builder top billing and due credit. Too often the builders’ of these great works of Architecture go unnoticed and under appreciated.
I learned a new term watching that video: “Architecture with a capital A”. There are plenty of new buildings going up in NYC; they are all architectural design - but few are Architecture with a capital A.
ShoP designs capital A Architecture, and JDS Builds brilliantly - that is the best design/build team in NYC.
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I was a skeptic but i have to say, that black glass and bronze actually turned out pretty good. Although I think its the setbacks that are what really makes this thing shine. Can NY mandate all new buildings have setbacks please. A wall of glass is mind numbingly boring.
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No, absolutely not.
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Do you like flat walls of glass?
i mean i do
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I don’t like your favorite little architectural features being mandatory. Just like I’d oppose any mandatory art deco requirements, and I’d oppose any mandatory (neo) classical requirements, I’d oppose any mandatory spire requirements. Etc, etc.
Also setbacks = good is idiotic.
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No single architectural feature is an automatic good.
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I agree. I mean every architecture feature, whether it’s a box, art deco, setbacks, modern, etc…, is good in its own ways.
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There is a ‘set-back’ mandate to some extent: which I like very much. With the FAR zoning requirements; any building with a FAR of 12 needs to have ‘set-backs’ on any height over 12 stories high.
It is not exactly ‘mandatory’ as you can build 12 stories with no set-back: but most will build higher and use that FAR to build higher with set-backs. The FAR zoning regulations are brilliant: but have some inconsistency, being vague or ambiguous, regarding ‘air rights’ purchased from adjacent (or near by) sites.
Overall, I get you point - and agree…
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The setback requirement has strengths and weaknesses that can be debated, but one thing that’s certain is that NYC’s high-rise urban fabric would look much different, and probably much more generic without it. The 1916 “wedding cake” zoning law basically defined the classic NYC skyscraper. The canyons of setback wedding cake buildings you see in certain stretches of midtown avenues are unique responses to the city’s then-revolutionary zoning. The mandated wedding cake shape is an important part of the unique character of Manhattan.
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I have always disliked the way those wedding cake buildings look. Some of them anyway.
Well, that’s your opinion but like I said, the setback requirement is a fundamental part of NYC’s unique urbanism and there’s no getting around that. It’s made its mark on the city’s fabric for 100 years, and continues to be influential today, as architects try to either reinterpret the setback to modern needs (175 Park, The Spiral, Brooklyn Tower) or make a statement by radically inverting it (Affirmation, BIG’s 2 WTC, OMA’s Greenpoint towers). It’s kind of unavoidable when considering NYC architecture.
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I like that “wedding cake” analogy: but figuring out NYC zoning is no ‘piece-of-cake’. 
The best thing about the set-back zoning due to FAR: is the light/air circulation reaching the street. The unintended benefit is the amazing skyline visibility due to all the space between high rise buildings.
So, it’s not ALL good, but mostly good - a mixed bag.
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