One World Trade Center is the tallest building in New York City and the United States at 1,776-feet-tall. 217 W. 57th Street will become the tallest skyscraper in New York when it is completed in 2019 at 1,550 feet. One Vanderbilt won’t be much shorter when it reaches its planned height of 1,401 feet in 2020. It’s no secret with all of these planned and under construction skyscrapers in the Big Apple, New York has become infatuated with the intoxicating allure of the supertall.
An architecture firm based in New York and Athens, however, has created a conceptual skyscraper that would surpass all of these towers at 4,000 feet. But there is a catch: the building wouldn’t be 4,000 feet tall, it would be 4,000 feet long.
Oiio wanted to design a substitute for New York City’s recent obsession with luxury high-rise towers. “New York city’s zoning laws have created a peculiar set of tricks through which developers try to maximize their property’s height in order to infuse it with the prestige of a high rise structure,” Oiio says on its website. “But what if we substituted height with length? What if our buildings were long instead of tall?”
Image courtesy of Oiio.
The result of these questions is The Big Bend skyscraper, a building that would rise into the sky with the profile of a giant safety pin. The structure would take on the appearance of slender towers such as 432 Park Avenue, but with a twist. Once The Big Bend reached its maximum height, it would loop back towards the ground a few dozen meters from the first leg and straddle a smaller, historic building.
Staying with the theme of loops and bends, The Big Bend would be equipped with an elevator running along an innovative track changing system that allows for the horizontal connection of two shafts on the top and bottom to create a loop. This means elevators would be able to run between the two legs of the building as well as into the bend itself.
The building would rise near Central Park among other supertall structures like One57, Central Park Tower, and 111 West 57th Street. “We can now provide our structures with the measurements that will make them stand out without worrying about the limits of the sky,” says Oiio. Currently, the building is completely conceptual with know plans of being built.
Image courtesy of Oiio.
Image courtesy of Oiio.
Image courtesy of Oiio.
Related Stories
| Oct 4, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Methods, impacts, and opportunities in the concrete building life cycle
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Concrete Sustainability Hub conducted a life-cycle assessment (LCA) study to evaluate and improve the environmental impact and study how the “dual use” aspect of concrete.
| Sep 20, 2011
Jeanne Gang wins MacArthur Fellowship
Jeanne Gang, a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship winner described by the foundation as "an architect challenging the aesthetic and technical possibilities of the art form in a wide range of structures."
| Sep 14, 2011
Lend Lease’s role in 9/11 Memorial & Museum
Lend Lease is honored to be the general contractor for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum project at the World Trade Center site in New York City.
| Sep 14, 2011
Thornton Tomasetti’s Poon named to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Board of Trustees
During his 30-plus years of experience, Poon has been responsible for the design and construction of super high-rise structures, mixed-used buildings, hotels, airports, arenas and residential buildings worldwide.
| Sep 6, 2011
Construction on Beijing's tallest building starts next week
The 108 floor mixed-use skyscraper consists of offices, apartments, hotels and shopping malls on the lower floors.
| May 25, 2011
World’s tallest building now available in smaller size
Emaar Properties teamed up with LEGO to create a miniature version of the Burj Khalifa as part of the LEGO Architecture series. Currently, the LEGO Burj Khalifa is available only in Dubai, but come June 1, 2011, it will be available worldwide.
| May 17, 2011
Should Washington, D.C., allow taller buildings?
Suggestions are being made that Washington revise its restrictions on building heights. Architect Roger Lewis, who raised the topic in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, argues for a modest relaxation of the height limits, and thinks that concerns about ruining the city’s aesthetics are unfounded.
| Apr 19, 2011
15 mind-blowing skyscrapers
Our friends at Inhabitat have rounded up 15 incredible buildings—from underground cities to vertical farms to bio-fuel power plants and skyscrapers.
| Mar 22, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg unveils plans for New York City’s largest new affordable housing complex since the ’70s
Plans for Hunter’s Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s, include new residences for 5,000 families, with more than 900 in this first phase. A development team consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies, and Monadnock Construction has been selected to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space.
| Mar 11, 2011
Chicago office building will serve tenants and historic church
The Alter Group is partnering with White Oak Realty Partners to develop a 490,000-sf high-performance office building in Chicago’s West Loop. The tower will be located on land owned by Old St. Patrick’s Church (a neighborhood landmark that survived the Chicago Fire of 1871) that’s currently being used as a parking lot.
