Quote:
Originally Posted by Guiltyspark
I love the cantilevered observation platform. It does feel like one of those things that will get cut from the final design though... I hope not. These new renders are great, like something out of the next century. Buildings like these manage to be forward thinking without looking tacky. Tower Verre and One57 are in the same class.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dac150
While I do like this open air concept, I'm not sold that it'll survive - when times come to make adjustments due to costs, amenities such as this are always the first to go. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though!
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But that thing is not just an amenity, it won't be free, that thing is thought as big
money maker. The WTC base and spire weren't something profitable, this observation deck will indeed be. Imagine how much $$$$ they will do charging hundreds of tourists a day 20 dollars (or more, how much is the ESB observation deck?) and that's not even counting the additional money made by souvenir shops, restaurants, etc. And making it cantilevered (and possibly with a glass floor) only makes it more desirable, every tourist in NY would want to go there, as every tourist wants to go to the ESB observation deck.
The ESB observation deck is
very profitable and I guess the Rockefeller Center's one to. Moreover,
The Empire State Building makes more money from selling tickets to its observation decks on the 86th and 102nd floors than from renting 100 floors containing 2.6 million sq ft of office space. (according to this times article
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/busine...cle3391920.ece, cited in the ESB entry in wikipedia)
The play behind it is very clear, it is a brilliant move. There will be already three observations decks in NYC, including the upcoming World Trade Center's, plus very possibly an observation wheel in SI, so they have to do something different with it, not just another observation deck. And by making it cantilevered it will be such a special feature that not only will help the observation deck itself, but it will make the whole complex to be put in the map, as from it you will see the city from above, but from the city you will see it from bellow.