Snøhetta and SL Green Realty Corp. have recently unveiled SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, the new four-story observation complex located 1,000 feet above Midtown Manhattan in the KPF-designed One Vanderbilt building. The complex brings together spaces for art and gathering.
The observatory offers panoramic views of all five boroughs from a collection of curated multi-sensory viewing and lounge spaces. Upon arrival in the observation complex, visitors are greeted by the Hall of Light, an illuminated walkway that recreates the sky’s real-time color, hue, and brightness. On cloudy days the hallway is cool and dewy. On sunny days it shines a blueish white.
Beyond the Hall of Light a two-story mirrored gallery installation designed by Kenzo Digital reorients visitors’ perception of the skyline by reflecting the city into infinity. In adjacent areas Snøhetta designed transitional spaces marked by changes in materials, softly rounded corners, and curving soffits that anchor the more hard-edged areas of the observatory in order to balance its immersive installations.
The Summit Lounge, at the top of the observatory, is a welcoming space that contains a sculptural, heavy timbered panorama bench and hanging fireplace. The Summit Lounge has the atmosphere of a ski lodge and creates another zone in the observatory focused on the quieter aspects of experience.
Outside, an L-shaped terrace offers dark granite bar tables carved from monolithic stone and solid wood benches. Mountain shrubs, high meadow perennials and grasses, and rough-hewn materials approximate a traditional alpine mountain summit experience. An outdoor bar completes the social atmosphere.
Related Stories
| Sep 5, 2014
First Look: Zaha Hadid's Grace on Coronation towers in Australia
Zaha Hadid's latest project in Australia is a complex of three, tapered residential high-rises that have expansive grounds to provide the surrounding community unobstructed views and access to the town's waterfront.
| Sep 2, 2014
Extreme conversion: 17-story industrial silo to be converted to high-rise housing
As part of Copenhagen's effort to turn an industrial seaport into a bustling neighborhood, Danish architecture firm COBE was invited to convert a grain silo into a residential tower.
| Sep 2, 2014
Melbourne's tallest residential tower will have 'optically transformative façade'
Plans for Melbourne's tallest residential tower have been released by Elenberg Fraser Architects. Using an optically transformative façade and botanical aesthetic, the project seeks to change the landscape of Australia's Victoria state.
| Aug 28, 2014
Stantec releases design for Edmonton's tallest tower
At 227 meters, Stantec Tower will be the tallest building in the city, dwarfing the two next-tallest: Epcor Tower and Manulife Tower.
| Aug 25, 2014
Tall wood buildings: Surveying the early innovators
Timber has been largely abandoned as a structural solution in taller buildings during the last century, in favor of concrete and steel. Perkins+Will's Rebecca Holt writes about the firm's work in surveying the burgeoning tall wood buildings sector.
| Aug 25, 2014
'Vanity space' makes up large percentage of world's tallest buildings [infographic]
Large portions of some skyscrapers are useless space used to artificially enhance their height, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
| Aug 25, 2014
Photographer creates time-lapse video of 1 WTC using 30,000 photos
Choosing from 30,000 photos he took from the day construction began in 2006 to the day when construction was finished in 2012, Brooklyn-based photographer Benjamin Rosamund compressed 1,100 photos to create the two-minute video.
| Aug 19, 2014
Goettsch Partners unveils design for mega mixed-use development in Shenzhen [slideshow]
The overall design concept is of a complex of textured buildings that would differentiate from the surrounding blue-glass buildings of Shenzhen.
| Aug 15, 2014
First look: RMJM’s 'jumping fish' tower design for the Chinese Riviera
The tower's fish-jumping gesture is meant to symbolize the prosperity and rapid transformation of Zhuhai, China.
| Aug 12, 2014
Shading prototype could allow new levels of environmental control for skyscraper occupants
Developed by architects at NBBJ, Sunbreak uses a unique three-hinged shade that morphs from an opaque shutter to an abstract set of vertical blinds to an awning, depending on what is needed.
