New York keeps on dishing out the tough love to Richard Rogers. Already the British starchitect's 71-story Tower 3 at the World Trade Center is threatened with beheading or worse, and now his firm's madcap plan to top the Port Authority Bus Terminal with a 40-story office building looks like a goner. The Observer's Eliot Brown reports that Vornado Realty Trust's designation as the project's developer expires in August unless the company decides to start making lease payments to the Port Authority. Let's see: Crummy office market, no prospective tenants?yeah, they'll probably just going to go ahead and let that window slam shut. But all is not lost!
Sure the tower was a long-shot to begin with?developers have eyed the air above the bus station for eons?but the fact that Rogers' plan made it all the way to the rendering stage adds a sting of disappointment, especially for all the Curbed readers that voted the design into the top spot. There's still a glimmer of hope: According to Brown, Vornado and the Port Authority are in talks for a two-phased plan, with the focus right now on renovating the terminal and expanding the retail, with the tower to come later. Much later. Maybe? Folks, if we keep treating our starchitects this way, they'll never work in this town again. Then again, the credit crunch may have already taken care of that.
· Short Authority! Vornado's Bus Tower Pulling Out [NYO]
· Port Authority Office Building coverage [Curbed]
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