The public garden and revitalization of The Olayan Group’s 550 Madison, a postmodern building originally designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, has recently received final and unanimous approval from the City Planning Commission.
The Snøhetta-designed project will be located at the rear of the building and re-envisions the the public space as an expanded, densely vegetated garden. The transformation draws on the architectural heritage of the area, the activity of the neighborhood, and the natural history of the region. The privately-owned public space hopes to invite people to slow down and connect to one another and their surroundings.
“Privately-owned public spaces are a critical part of New York City’s public realm. Urban life thrives in and around spaces that allow us to connect with one another and to nature,” said Michelle Delk, Partner and Director of Landscape Architecture, Snøhetta, in a release.
See Also: Jaguar Land Rover’s Advanced Product Creation Centre has the largest timber roof in Europe
The new space will be approximately 21,000 sf and include around 50 newly planted trees and a wide variety of other plants such as annuals, perennials, and evergreens. The space will also include seating options, public bathrooms, and bike racks.
The garden will connect to the building’s lobby, which Gensler is currently in the process of redesigning.
Related Stories
| Oct 5, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Award Bronze Winner: Walsh Group Training and Conference Center, Chicago, Ill.
With its Building Team partners—architect Solomon Cordwell Buenz, structural engineer CS Associates, and M/E engineer McGuire Engineers—Walsh Construction, acting as its own contractor, turned the former automobile showroom and paperboard package facility into a 93,000-sf showcase of sustainable design and construction.
| Oct 5, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Award Silver Winner: 220 Water Street, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The recent rehabilitation of 220 Water Street transforms it from a vacant manufacturing facility to a 134-unit luxury apartment building in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood.
| Oct 5, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Award Silver Winner: Residences at the John Marshall, Richmond, Va.
In April 2010, the Building Team of Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio, Stanley D. Lindsey & Associates, Leppard Johnson & Associates, and Choate Interior Construction restored the 16-story, 310,537-sf building into the Residences at the John Marshall, a new mixed-use facility offering apartments, street-level retail, a catering kitchen, and two restored ballrooms.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Silver Winner: Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, Cleveland, Ohio
The $30 million project resulted in three new theatres in the existing 81,500-sf space and a 44,000-sf contiguous addition: the Allen Theatre, the Second Stage, and the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Gold Winner: Wake Forest Biotech Place, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Reconstruction centered on Building 91.1, a historic (1937) five-story former machine shop, with its distinctive façade of glass blocks, many of which were damaged. The Building Team repointed, relocated, or replaced 65,869 glass blocks.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Gold Winner: Rice Fergus Miller Office & Studio, Bremerton, Wash.
Rice Fergus Miller bought a vacant and derelict Sears Auto and converted the 30,000 gsf space into the most energy-efficient commercial building in the Pacific Northwest on a construction budget of around $100/sf.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Platinum Winner: City Hall, New York, N.Y.
New York's City Hall last received a major renovation nearly a century ago. Four years ago, a Building Team led by construction manager Hill International took on the monumental task of restoring City Hall for another couple of hundred years of active service.
| Oct 4, 2012
BD+C's 29th Annual Reconstruction Awards
Presenting 11 projects that represent the best efforts of distinguished Building Teams in historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and renovation and addition projects.
| Sep 24, 2012
Reed Construction completes Lafarge headquarters in Chicago
Reed Construction was contracted to complete the full third floor build-out which included the construction of new open area work space, private offices, four conference rooms with videoconferencing capabilities and an executive conference boardroom.
| Jul 25, 2012
KBE Building renovates UConn dining hall
Construction for McMahon Dining Hall will be completed in September 2012.
