In advance of Grand Central's 100th birthday next year, the Municipal Arts Society (MAS) asked three architecture firms to rethink the station's public spaces for the next 100 years. The results were unveiled last week.
From the bold to the incremental, SOM, WXY, and Foster+Partners presented their competing visions for MAS's Grand Central The Next 100 project last week at the non-profit's annual Summit for New York City. Jaclyn Hersh discusses the designs, which each, "used the existing Grand Central as a springboard to create
infrastructure that stimulates and interacts with the public realm,
connecting the terminal to the street and larger neighborhood." A neighborhood, it should be added, which is destined for a significant transformation in the Bloomberg administration's proposed upzoning for the area.
According to Laura Kusisto, writing in The Wall Street Journal, "The most visually striking proposal, designed by Skidmore Owings, is a
halo suspended between two new office buildings that would move up and
down. It would give visitors a view of the city from different heights,
similar to the London Eye."
Read the full story: Foster, SOM and WXY Explore Grand Ideas for the Next 100 Years at Grand Central Terminal
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Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello