Freedom Plaza, USA
BIG has designed a pair of Manhattan skyscrapers connected by a twisting skybridge as part of a four-tower development. Freedom Plaza will be located on a 2.7-hectare site that sits across from the United Nations (UN) Headquarters complex. The project is oriented towards the East River and will consist of two residential and two conjoined hotel skyscrapers that enclose a central park with the spiral-shaped Museum of Freedom and Democracy at its center.
BIG designed the museum, the podium, and the four surrounding towers. Two of them, measuring 50 and 60 stories respectively, are dedicated to residential units, including 1,325 apartments. The other two 51-story towers accommodate two hotels, as well as a conference and entertainment center.
The residential towers take cues from New York’s famous modernist buildings, featuring glass and aluminum facades connected at the base by a podium dedicated to retail spaces and a food market. The 1.9 hectare park at the centre of the development will be laid over the top of this podium. The two hotel towers present a different image, clad in a warm metal finish and connecting at the roof to create visual unity. The resulting sky bridge cantilever offers a multisensory viewing platform with a glass floor and ceiling.
Urban developments of this scale usually feature a multistory podium with parking and inaccessible private amenities on a podium rooftop. Freedom Plaza, however, breaks free from that stereotype by integrating all podium programs such as parking, retail, ballroom, gaming, and entertainment below grade, and creates an over 4.77-acre green space accessible to everyone.
References:
www.arcrealestate.ir
