[Renderings: the one and only dbox]
When we gaze upon the spiraling glassy wonder that makes up architect Daniel Libeskind's proposed addition to One Madison Avenue, we think one thing: Holy fucking shit! When Bloomberg (news service, not the dude) architecture critic James Russell looks at those very same plans and renderings for the 900-foot tower, he also thinks one thing: September 11th. Libeskind may be forever linked to 9/11 because of the dashed dreams of his master plan for a redeveloped ground zero, but he ended up with nary a building at the new World Trade Center, and Russell sees malice reflecting off the shiny skin of Libeskind's latest mindgrape:
Were it to be built, it would be a crude and unavoidable reminder of the horrors of 9/11. Is it Daniel’s revenge? After all, he has dutifully defended the master plan at the World Trade Center as his vision was turned into a dour, money-sucking melange. For his pains, he was never asked to do a building at the site.
Yeah, he went there. But Russell is just getting started:
Libeskind interrupts his glassy shaft with two jagged wedges torn out of the building in seven-floor-high chunks. He terraces the sloping surfaces into apartment balconies overflowing with greenery. He even runs a furry blanket of shrubbery up the exposed thick core containing elevators, stairs and such. Is he trying to evoke the tragic collision of those 9/11 jets in the gashlike shapes, then offering us a symbol of rebirth in planted balconies? By telephone he says no. Instead, the idea is to extend the greenery of Madison Square Park into the sky, to make “every apartment a penthouse,” since most floors would open to one of the gardens.
Whoa. The estimated completion date of Libeskind's tower is...around 2132, so let's revisit this topic sometime around then. Hot potato!
· Libeskind Flags 9/11, Spurned Master Plan in New Condo Tower [Bloomberg]
· Madison Mania: Libeskind Shows You How His Gardens Grow [Curbed]
Loading comments...