Japanese Pritzker Prize-winner Fumihiko Maki was selected way back in 2004 as the architect for a new UN tower, one that has been held up by local and international red tape until the beginning of this month. Now, a land swap has been approved and the UN has access to a parcel just south of its landmark Secretariat Building.
The previous incarnation--"glassy, white and sheer but elegant"--was co-designed with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was projected for 2008. (We've been Googling our fingers to the bone and have yet to find a mock-up of aforementioned 35-story sheer-but-elegant tower, so holler if you hear us.) Maki's new local partners at FXFowle tell the Observer that they won't be changing it drastically: “It’s a tight site and a tight building envelope, so the designs will change that much, but we are going back over everything."
· U.N Architects Back to the Drawing Board; Pritzker Winner Still on Board [Observer]
· Land Swap is Announced to Allow New UN Tower and Esplanade [City Room]
· United Nations coverage [Curbed]