This week, Manhattan added One Vanderbilt, another super tall building to its skyline. Located next to Grand Central Terminal, One Vanderbilt tops out at 1,401 feet (427 m) in height. While the tallest office building in the city remains the One World Trade Center, this building’s slender, crystalline profile takes a prominent place in the city –visible from as far away as Brooklyn and Queens and towering 400 feet above the nearby Chrysler Building. Check out the dramatic photos of its spire being placed over the past several days.
This 1.6 million square foot building was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and comprises four interlocking and tapering planes that spiral toward the sky. At the tower’s base, a series of angled cuts on the south side of the block creates a visual procession to Grand Central Terminal revealing the Vanderbilt corner of the Terminal’s magnificent cornice – a view that has been obstructed for nearly a century. The tower’s terracotta facade, which incorporates the same distinct ceiling tiles found throughout Grand Central Terminal, provides the soaring structure a natural, luminous texture.
Interesting stats include that the building includes over twenty-six thousand tons of US made and fabricated steel and seventy-four thousand cubic yards of concrete. At its peak activity levels, over 800 workers were onsite daily. In addition, the project has engaged close to fifty subcontractors.
Urban Realm and Green Design:
At street level, efforts were made to ensure a sense of human scale is created with measures such as converted a block long stretch into a car-free pedestrian plaza. Additionally, there will be a public transit hall that links the building and street to Grand Central below.
Environmentally, it includes a number of featuring cutting-edge technologies including 1.2-MW cogeneration and 90,000-gallon rainwater collection systems. The tower is on track to receive several environmental distinctions, including the highest levels of LEED and WELL certifications. Further to this, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recognized One Vanderbilt and its architecture firm, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) Associates, with the prestigious 2018 AIA NY Merit Award in Urban Design.
