Reshaping NYC
How can Midtown's newly become vacant office buildings be re-used?
T. Hoek (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Hrvoje Smidihen – Mentor (TU Delft - History, Form & Aesthetics)
H.L. van der Meel – Mentor (TU Delft - Architectural Engineering)
A Mulder – Mentor (TU Delft - Education and Student Affairs)
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Abstract
Offices located in Midtown Manhattan are on the move towards new developments on the river banks, leaving their old residencies behind. Because of this phenomenon Midtown is experiencing high vacancy rates in its obsolete building envelope. This transition can be seen as a threat or an opportunity for Midtown’s future. It happened before and will most likely happen again, but the question is how we can deal with these kind of issues. The Rockefeller Center complex, for example, is part of the generation of urban renewal projects that helped to revitalize Midtown Manhattan at the end of the 20s and part of the more recent re-developments in the 60s. Still today, by being the largest business district in the world, Midtown remains the corporate center of Manhattan. The office building Park Avenue Plaza, previously leased by BlackRock who is now moving out towards Hudson Yards, lies in the center of financial business district of Manhattan. In this graduation project the building will function as an example to evaluate how to unlock building values that lie within the existing building stock in Midtown. With the refurbishment into a Life Science (Li-Sci) Center, financially supported by Deerfield Management, the building will pioneer and set an example for other sidelined buildings in Midtown.