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
| Mar 21, 2014
Forget wood skyscrapers - Check out these stunning bamboo high-rise concepts [slideshow]
The Singapore Bamboo Skyscraper competition invited design teams to explore the possibilities of using bamboo as the dominant material in a high-rise project for the Singapore skyline.
| Mar 19, 2014
Federal agency gives thumbs up to tall wood buildings
USDA's support for wood projects includes training for AEC professionals and a wood high-rise design competition, to launch later this year.
| Mar 18, 2014
Koolhaas, OMA selected to design San Francisco high-rise residential tower
The project includes a 550-foot residential tower on one end of the block and two podium buildings and a row of townhouses filling the remainder of the property.
| Mar 17, 2014
Rem Koolhaas explains China's plans for its 'ghost cities'
China's goal, according to Koolhaas, is to de-incentivize migration into already overcrowded cities.
| Mar 13, 2014
Austria's tallest tower shimmers with striking 'folded façade' [slideshow]
The 58-story DC Tower 1 is the first of two high-rises designed by Dominique Perrault Architecture for Vienna's skyline.
| Mar 12, 2014
London grows up: 236 tall buildings to be added to skyline in coming decade, says think tank
The vast majority of high-rise projects in the works are residential towers, which could help tackle the city's housing crisis, according to a new report by New London Architecture.
| Mar 4, 2014
Kettler to begin construction on Bethesda high-rise apartment complex
The 101-unit high-rise, called Element 28, is designed to achieve a LEED Silver certification.
| Feb 25, 2014
NYC's Hudson Spire would be nation's tallest tower if built
Design architect MJM + A has released an updated design scheme for the planned 1,800-foot-tall, superthin skyscraper.
| Feb 20, 2014
5 myths about cross laminated timber
A CLT expert clears up several common misconceptions and myths surrounding the use of wood as a building material.
| Feb 17, 2014
Developer plans to 'crowdfund' extended stay hotel in Manhattan
Want to own a piece of Manhattan hotel real estate? Developer Rodrigo Nino is inviting individual investors to put up $100,000 each for his latest project, 17 John.
