The Norman Foster-designed 2 World Trade Center is widely considered to be the most lovely tower of the new complex, but if News Corp. and 21st Century Fox decide to move to the 88-story skyscraper, Foster may get the boot. His replacement? Architect Bjarke Ingels, whose oddball buildings are much more futuristic, and weirdly shaped, than Foster's. It was previously reported that the tower would require a "substantial revision" to accommodate the media companies, and now the Journal reports that developer Larry Silverstein and the potential anchor tenants want to bring in Ingels to execute a new design. However, the "deal is far from certain," and the companies could stay in their current Midtown headquarters.
But if they were to move and Ingels is brought it, it would be, as the Journal puts it, "by far the largest change to the closely watched rebuilding since the tower designs were unveiled in 2006." Sources say the tower would remain about the same size as Foster's design: 3 million square feet with a height of 1,270 feet. The biggest changes would come at the base, which would need to be reconfigured to hold TV studios, but it wouldn't be a surprise if Ingels did something wild with the rest of the tower, too. After all, this is the man who gave New York a tetrahedron, Google an undulating transparent canopy building, Vancouver a "twisting" tower, and Copenhagen a ski slope waste power plant. In other words: anything goes with this guy.
· 21st Century Fox, News Corp Considering Move to World Trade Center [WSJ]
· 2 World Trade Center Shows Signs of Life With Tenant Talks [Curbed]
· 2 World Trade Center [official]
· 2 World Trade Center coverage [Curbed]
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