425 Park Avenue

by OMA

Our building is an intersection of these two observations: it proposes a stack of three cubes: the lower one a full solid block on Park Avenue, the smallest on top, rotated 45 degrees vis-à-vis the Manhattan grid, oriented beyond its mere location in a sweep from midtown to Central Park.

The three cubes are connected by curved planes to create a subtle alternation of flat and three dimensional planes, each reflecting sky and city in their own way.

The shape is at the same time highly artistic and highly efficient, a diagram of maximum beauty and maximum rentability, combined in a single, Brancusi-like shape. Its geometry at the same time reinforces and escapes the existing city. It resonates with each of its famous neighbors -Seagram, Lever, AT&T, Racquet Club - yet is emphatically futuristic.

Its conceptual model accommodates both the design competition's request to maintain 25 percent of the existing building and the entirely-from-scratch scenario with equal ease.

Amo OMA. I love OMA, we all agree on the fact that Rem and his team has produce iconic building that will part of what future students of architecture will call classic architecture from the XXI century. Please if you are a fan from Calatrava's work compare this tower with the Turning Torso tower and you will agree with me that this is a much more interesting work. Full stop.