425 PARK AVENUE DESIGN BY NORMAN FOSTER & PARTNERS
425 PARK AVENUE DESIGN BY NORMAN FOSTER & PARTNERS
New York, USA 2012
Following a high-profile international competition
lasting for six months, the practice was appointed to design the first
full-block office building on Park Avenue for 50 years. The new tower at 425
Park Avenue, which will stand alongside Modernist icons by Mies van der Rohe,
Eero Saarinen and Philip Johnson, is conceived as a flexible, enduring new
addition to one of New York City’s most celebrated streets.
The tower’s form is a pure expression of its function.
The building is divided vertically into three distinct volumes: a seven-storey
base, knitted with the urban grain at street level; a recessed central section;
and a slender column of premium offices at the top. These proportions were
established through a process of detailed analysis, involving modelling views
of Central Park from the site and finding the ideal distribution of areas to
achieve a balanced composition. The first set back – a characteristic feature
of high-rise design in New York – corresponds with the datum of the street. The
second set back develops this theme, physically and symbolically setting the
upper levels apart from the rest of the city’s office towers. To maximise the
Park Avenue frontage, the core is placed to the rear, where glazed stairwells
bring life to the eastern elevation and reveal long views towards the East
River. Clearly expressing the structure, the tapered steel-frame tower rises to
meet three shear walls – extending from the top of the tower, these three
blades will provide an elegant marker on the skyline.
Between each volume, the office floors are intersected
by dramatic triple-height sky gardens. Offering the prized amenity of open
space in the heart of Manhattan, with bars, cafes, facilities for meetings and
conferences, the 42foot-high levels function as urban squares in a vertical
city – they will also provide a magnificent setting for gala events. The
gardens are defined by a horizontal grid of louvres and sheltered from the wind
by a discreet band of glazing. The rectilinear spaces are then bounded by diagonal
columns, exposing the structure to emphasise the vast scale of the enclosure.
The social focus of the tower continues at street level, where entrance is via
a dramatic triple-height atrium and a large public plaza, with the potential
for large-scale works of art.
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/425-park-avenue/
425 PARK AVENUE NEW YORK, USA
DESIGN BY NORMAN FOSTER & PARTNERS
NORMAN FOSTER
Chairman + Founder
Norman Foster was born in
Manchester. After graduating from Manchester University School of Architecture
and City Planning in 1961 he won a Henry Fellowship to Yale University, where
he was a fellow of Jonathan Edwards College and gained a Master’s Degree in
Architecture.
In 1963 he co-founded Team 4 and
in 1967 he established Foster Associates, now known as Foster + Partners.
Founded in London, it is now a worldwide practice, with project offices in more
than twenty countries. Over the past four decades the company has been
responsible for a strikingly wide range of work, from urban masterplans, public
infrastructure, airports, civic and cultural buildings, offices and workplaces
to private houses and product design. Since its inception, the practice has
received 470 awards and citations for excellence and has won more than 86
international and national competitions.
Norman Foster was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1983, the Gold Medal for the French Academy of Architecture in 1991 and the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1994. Also in 1994, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture inFrance. In 1999 he became the twenty-first Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate; and in 2002 he was elected to the German Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste and awarded the Praemium Imperiale. He was granted a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 1990, and appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit in 1997. In 1999 he was honoured with a life peerage in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, taking the title Lord Foster of Thames Bank.
Norman Foster was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1983, the Gold Medal for the French Academy of Architecture in 1991 and the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1994. Also in 1994, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture inFrance. In 1999 he became the twenty-first Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate; and in 2002 he was elected to the German Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste and awarded the Praemium Imperiale. He was granted a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 1990, and appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit in 1997. In 1999 he was honoured with a life peerage in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, taking the title Lord Foster of Thames Bank.
NORMAN FOSTER & PARTNERS
THE WAY WE WORK
From the beginning, we have
pioneered a sustainable approach to design, through work that spans the
spectrum from masterplans to furniture. Our approach is sensitive to location
and culture, often combining the latest advances in building technology with
techniques drawn from vernacular tradition; and we harness the skills,
enthusiasm and knowledge of integrated design teams, clients and communities to
create inspirational environments.
By working together creatively
from the start of a project, architects and engineers combine their knowledge
to devise integrated, sustainable design solutions. From appointment to
completion, the design teams are supported by numerous in-house disciplines,
including project management and a construction review panel. And to ensure
consistency and personal service, the same core team sees a project through
from beginning to end. The design process is reviewed regularly by the Design Board, and the practice is led by the
Partnership Board.
DESIGN BOARD
The design of each project is
reviewed regularly, both formally and informally, under the direction of the
Design Board, which is led by founder and Chairman Norman
Foster, Stefan
Behling, Grant
Brooker, Nigel
Dancey,Spencer
de Grey, Gerard Evenden, Luke
Fox, Paul
Kalkhoven,David
Nelson and David
Summerfield. The Design Board has full responsibility for design
within the office.
While its involvement is
important in the early, conceptual design phases, it ensures continuity and
quality at every stage of a project, as well as encouraging the sharing of
expertise across the project teams. The Design Board was created in the spirit
of challenging and being challenged. It also plays an important role in
stimulating research, as well as in arranging cross-disciplinary design
workshops on various issues, such as urban design and sustainability.
TEAM
Ideas can flow more freely when
architects, structural and environmental engineers work together creatively
from the beginning of a project. By doing so, they can combine their knowledge,
and learn from one another, to devise sustainable, fully integrated design
solutions. Alongside the architects and engineers are the many specialist teams
whose expertise underpins our approach.
Our commitment to research and
development has allowed us to bring our combined expertise to bear on an
unprecedented range of projects around the world. Although design work tends to
be focused in London, Riverside is just one of a network of offices that spans
six continents and virtually every time zone. The practice reflects this rich
mix of cultural connections; the team is young and cosmopolitan.
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/about-us/team/
