Manhattan’s Building Frenzy, Up and Down
When people land in New York city, the first thing they notice is the ever-changing skyline. The craze is for reaching the sky! Downtown and midtown Manhattan are spiked with skyscrapers increasingly tall and skinny. The borough of Queens is also attracting developers’ interest and a building boom is now taking place along the East River there. Nondescript buildings are erected with great views of the river and rents more affordable than in Manhattan. Pritzker prize winner architects like Tadao Ondo and Alvaro Siza have yet to venture into Queens; so far Manhattan is the sole preserve of their creativity. Sadly, their creations seem lost among the neighboring unremarkable constructions. Siza is contributing to the gentrifying drive in Hell’s Kitchen, and Ondo that of Nolita in lower Manhattan. The new kid on the block so to speak is Hudson Yards, the huge US$ 25 billion real estate development built over the Long Island rail road tracks ...