BIG SKYSCRAPERS
14 Feb 2024
Global architecture firm BIG has designed a pair of Manhattan skyscrapers connected by a cantilevered skybridge as part of a four-tower development that includes a spiral-shaped museum at its centre.
Freedom Plaza is oriented towards the East River and will consist of two residential and two conjoined hotel skyscrapers that enclose a central park designed by US studio OJB Landscape Architecture with the spiral-shaped Museum of Freedom and Democracy at its centre.
"The design respects the celebrated UN complex to the north while also adding playful and sculptural elements to the waterfront," said BIG. "Bookending the park are two pairs of towers, joined at the base or top and each framing a corner plaza: one showcasing the life of the city and the other forming an urban gate from the city to the upper park and East River beyond." 
The project's 51-storey hotel towers will reach each 187 metres, conjoined by a multi-story, cantilevered skybridge on their uppermost levels and clad in a warm metal finish. The towers will house a Banyan Tree and Mohegran hotel, along with a conference and entertainment centre, which will include a below-grade 'gaming area'.
The project's two residential towers, located towards the site's southside, will reach 167 and 198 metres high and will contain 1,325 apartments, with nearly 40 per cent dedicated to affordable housing. Clad in striped glass and aluminium facades, the design pays homage to New York City's modernist buildings from the 1950s and 60s. 
A semicircular, underground podium will connect the two towers at their base and will house a food market and retail spaces. The 4.7 acre (1.9 hectares) park at the centre of the development will be laid over top of this podium.
The project's central park will contain a dog run, children's play area and bandshell, "uniting three city blocks to form a public green space reaching from 1st Avenue to the East River overlook, creating a green connection all the way to the water's edge," explains BIG. 
At the centre of the park, the Museum of Freedom and Democracy consists of a spiral form informed by a Möbius strip, according to the team. Renderings show an open-air amphitheatre enclosed at its centre, with visitors traversing pathways along its exterior.
"The museum forms a spiralling and infinite geometry over the amphitheatre as a symbol of unity and takes cues from the traditional Greek theatre as a nod to those who created democracy thousands of years ago." 
Images from Negativ, via Dezeen
