They are a global group that cuts corners at all costs. :haha:

I'm waiting for them to prove me wrong with 400 N LSD... assuming that Reilly stops sycophantically blocking them to appease a few loud, weepy neighbors.

Right, although HY is pretty awesome.

While I hope for a combination of the two towers into something taller I'm not going to get my hopes up. Perhaps it could be cool to have ~300 meter identical twins? I'm just speculating but the smaller podium could be a good thing.

I work across the street from 30 Hudson Yards. Not impressed by it. It's tall, but honestly it's not that great looking. The only cool part about it is the big window on the south side of the building. Some of the other buildings nearby, which are shorter, are much better looking in person. I have to look at these things at least 5 days a week and 30 Hudson Yards is by far my least favorite building in HY. It just looks like they cut a lot of corners. The glass is cheap as hell on this thing. The other buildings nearby are definitely better. I have not found a single person at work who actually likes the buildings - everyone likes the other ones. Also in real life, 30 Hudson Yards seems shorter than it actually is by a few hundred feet. Quite honestly, the first time I saw Vista in person (when they were around the 70 story mark) it felt just as massive if not moreso at that height than 30HY topped out.

Funny thing is that someone I hired recently did grad school in Chicago, and one day while walking back from lunch he said to me "Isn't it funny? All of these buildings look like they're trying to be Chicago so much" LOL.

^What did your co-worker mean by his comment? How are they trying to look like Chicago?

Personal opinion- HY looks hideous. The renderings we saw in January for WPS look better than every skyscraper in HY.

More space between buildings so you can actually see them, glassy, and he mentioned that they're a little bit more modern looking skyscraper wise than other in the city. I think he used the term "copying Chicago" somewhere in there. I mostly agree with his statements.


There are a few buildings I like certain aspects of, like part of 35 HY and 15 HY that I think look better in real life, but other than scale I'm not impressed by most of the development. It actually sucks working there because there's not a lot of good lunch options right around. It was much better when we were near Wall Street. It's been interesting watching it though. When we moved into the office, 30 HY was barely off the ground and the McDonald's next door was still open for business. It's changed a lot, but I still wouldn't live nearby. And in my opinion, 30 Hudson Yards looks the cheapest out of all the buildings which is funny since it's by far the tallest and somehow people will automatically say it's amazing just because of its height. From a distance you can't tell as much but go right next to it and you can tell just how cheap the building looks especially the glass.

Today I learned that people didn't realize how massive of a company Related is

I'm actually surprised. I thought most people on here knew how big they were. Their founder, Stephen Ross, is worth over $7.5B because of Related (and a few other venues - but mostly Related). He also owns half of the Miami Dolphins. Back in 2006, Related did over $3B in revenue.

Yeah, i read up on it a bit and it seems like the city had very little to do with it. That said, it does seem that there was a stronger view to the long-term potential of a site, so risk assessment was different back then. However, banking on Sears seeing strong growth after construction turned out to be a disaster, and the building sat half vacant for a decade. JHT on the other hand was a big success owing to its mixed-use advantage.

In the end, I like your idea about requiring relative heights for special sites rather than a specific number. Also, using JHT as a an example, you could encourage people to build taller by requiring mixed use in some cases. Other than that, the only really specific requirements I am in favor of are at street level.

Another interesting thing about Sears - it was the largest retailer in the world during construction, with 350,000 employees worldwide! so it was a very special case indeed.

OMG it definitely looked exactly like 9/11. One hundred percent. Not being sarcastic here at all. /sarcasm

Yassssssss

What did they think when the organization is named Related Companies? :shrug:

Okay... I want something like that here now... I don't even care if we get called copycats. I NEED

It's certainly disappointing that WPS is not projected to be a supertall, but when you look at 330 N LaSalle and 150 N Riverside from WP, the impact of another TWO 830+ towers on the river in the next few years, our river skyscraper canyon will be on another level. Woof!

Well, it's certainly gotten shorter and fatter with more setbacks at the top
https://i.imgur.com/OJ15bqF.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/8vlIX5Y.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/YsYELO4.jpg?1https://i.imgur.com/Y8uDZCq.jpg?1

It's a nice building but a bit of a wasted opportunity IMO.

It'll be nice to have two 800+ footers in that area of the river though. And it'll go nicely with WPE. I still say the higher offices will have the best views in the city just given the location of this thing.

I'm more excited about other Chicago projects at the moment.

That's an objectively better design and it moved away from looking like a slightly more attractive Comcast Center(Philly) which is a big plus... just gonna be salty about the height downgrade forever. From the river this thing would have been beautiful and imposing at this height or a 100 feet taller.

The building is the same width though, it just appears fatter because of proportions

I would argue this is a downgrade. It's clear now, more than ever, that they're trying to emulate 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Even the height was made closer to the height of 30 Rock, even if that particular choice was unintentional. The inspiration is obvious, and really, it's not something that can be replicated well with glass.

https://zealnyc.com/wp-content/uploa...ler-center.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OJ15bqF.jpg?1

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7255/6953521666_55257855a2_c.jpg
NYC - Rockefeller Center: GE Building by Wally Gobetz, on Flickr

https://i.imgur.com/YsYELO4.jpg?1

As for the design, They beefed up the upper floors with the added setbacks but it seems they scrapped the tenant balcony atop the first setback. That seems like a regrettable sacrifice. And of course, the height was chopped.

well...

That's....unfortunate.

Hudson I thought the same thing, it is basically just a modern GE Tower.