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Old Posted Sep 6, 2014, 4:44 PM
Crawford Crawford is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NYC/Polanco, DF
Posts: 30,551
Quote:
Originally Posted by patriotizzy View Post
I'm sorry but that's probably the worst argument I've ever heard. All you have to do is browse through these threads and you'll see lots of cool "out of the box" designs (pun intended, too easy) ie 30 Hudson Yards, 111 West 57th, One57, and 56 Loenard.
Sorry, but you're wrong. Three of these buildings are basically boxes. They meet the street in a boxy manner, and meet the sky in a boxy manner. They're built to the grid.

The fourth, in Hudson Yards, is actually pretty atypical and anti-urban for NYC standards. And I never said every single building in NYC is a box, or that boxes can't have variety.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patriotizzy View Post
You can try to defend NYC's box designs, and I won't assume it's due to bias, but lets at least be realistic here. You can use NYC's street grid and have fantastic, original, and inspiring designs.
Of course you can have fantastic, original, and inspiring designs. But these designs will tend to be boxes. There is nothing "fantastic, original and inspiring" about a non-box or not "fantastic, original and inspiring" about a box. You're using your architectural biases to feed your opinions on originality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patriotizzy View Post
In my opinion, boxy designs are a travesty to NYC's skyline. A city that became famous due to its set backs and spires deserves better.
Setbacks and spires haven't been common in NYC since before the Great Depression, when the city had totally different zoning regulations. And even these buildings were essentially boxes, but with a "hat" on top. 40 Wall, ESB, etc. are fundamentally boxes. Unless you want to transform yourself back to this era, it isn't happening.