The London-based firm foster + partners has just been awarded the redesign of 425 Park Avenue, a 55-year old building between 55th and 56th Streets in New York City. Lord Norman Foster beat out three other “starchitects” for the commission– Zaha Hadid of Zaha Hadid Architects, Rem Koolhaas of OMA, and Richard Rogers of Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners.
Photo via Architizer.
According to Architizer, “The tower will replace a 32-story building completed in 1957. At 625,000 square feet, the Foster building will reportedly be the first full-block office tower to rise on Park Avenue in nearly 50 years.”
Foster says of the honor, “I have a personal connection with New York, which has been a source of inspiration since my time at Yale, when the new towers on Park Avenue and its neighborhoods were a magnet for every young architect…Seeing firsthand the works of Mies van der Rohe, Gordon Bunshaft, Eero Saarinen, and Philip Johnson was tremendously exciting then—I am delighted to have this very special opportunity to design a contemporary tower to stand alongside them.”
L&L Holding Company and Lehman Brothers Holdings are developing the project with construction set to start in 2015.
What do you think of Foster’s design?
