For those interested in architecture there’s been recent cause for much excitement with the announcement of a new spire in Manhattan, due to break the Twin Towers’ 1,776-foot height record. This staggering release is just one bit of the planned future development in the Big Apple. A rendering by Visualhouse, exhibited at New York Yimby gave the public an idea of what New York’s skyline will look like in 15 years, and the predictions are nothing short of fantastical. Here at Holiday Taxis we love New York, and these futuristic predictions are nothing short of fantastical.
One of the developments is a new spire, which will be added to the Nordstrom Tower, which might just make it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere by a few feet. Another exciting announcement was the construction of new skyscrapers at West 57th Street and Park Avenue, which will join the Nordstrom Tower amongst the world’s most colossal feats of engineering.
Although the presentation gave us a date around 2030, Yimby says the vision will be closer to a reality ten years earlier, given their forecasts for construction. The graphics are impressive as it is, but don’t even include five other massive projects that are awaiting approval.
While New York Yimby, and thousands of regular New Yorkers, was ecstatic about these newly unveiled plans, not everyone is happy to hear the news. In the wake of the emerging US construction boom, many are concerned about the effect that all these new skyscrapers will have on the city. One principal argument is the way that a heavily shadowed urban landscape will deplete the potential for harnessing and using solar energy.
This lobby isn’t isolated to New York. Earlier this month Washington DC’s city zoning commission passed laws which prevent building projects from exceeding a certain height if they obstruct pre-existing solar panels. The US capital is a special case in some respects, as it is still under many archaic height restrictions that will prevent anything even remotely close to the Empire State Building’s size being built. With these sensibilities beginning to spread into other American cities, those in the construction sector are concerned that it will eventually lead to stopping the erection of almost every new building.
Despite the ongoing debate, people on both sides appear somewhat open to compromise. We’re likely to start seeing more solar panel designs for vertical surfaces, which will hopefully lead to an agreement that won’t limit the construction of new so-called “supertalls in the future. Further to this, many are expecting new microgrids to spring up, basically localized power generators, which will not only create hundreds of new jobs, but produce, store and distribute renewable energy without every building needing its own cell.
Whether you fervently encourage or oppose the new construction plans, we’re sure to see a series of dramatic changes to New York, and the results will be fascinating to watch come to fruition.