Calatrava-Designed Residential Tower for New York

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Calatrava-Designed Residential Tower for New York

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February 26, 2005 Renowned Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava is normally associated with public places on a grand scale. The Athens Olympic Sports Complex, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center Transport Hub, plus dozens of the most beautiful buildings in major cities around the world - airports, opera houses, bridges, train stations. Calatrava creates landmarks. Now he has teamed with one of New York's leading construction companies to design a visually striking, 835-foot-tall residential tower to be developed on the East River waterfront, just blocks from the World Trade Center site. Calatrava's residential design is important - almost certainly he will go down in history as one of the great architects, though his career is still yet young, the opportunity to buy a Calatrava-designed apartment will come at a great price. No pricing has been established for the apartments yet because the State of New York has not yet officially approved an offering plan to prospective buyers. New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch paid a then New York State record US$44 million for a Fifth Avenue apartment in early December, and the Caltrava-designed apartments are expected to be in the same ball park.

Inspired by Mr. Calatrava's own works of sculpture and based on his formidable knowledge of structural engineering, the slender, soaring tower will be the architect's first residential project in the U.S. At present, the building is named after its address, 80 South Street Tower.

"The tower's breathtakingly unconventional design is expected to make the building another symbol of downtown Manhattan's resolute, indomitable spirit of recovery and resurgence," said Frank Sciame, CEO of F.J. Sciame Construction Co., and its development arm, Sciame Development, Inc.

John Evans, Vice President of Sciame Development, added, "This tower represents an opportunity to live in a work of art. We're confident that a building designed by Santiago Calatrava with only 12 exclusive townhouses in the sky will generate global interest."

Mr. Calatrava said, "I feel very fortunate to have been asked to design a tower for New York City, which is the home of the skyscraper, and to do so on such a beautiful and dramatic site. Frank Sciame has shown his determination to create an exceptional work of architecture for New York. I am grateful for the trust he has placed in me."

About the building

The tower's residences, described as "Townhouses in the Sky," will consist of modular, 45-foot cubes. Twelve cubes, each containing four floors, will be cantilevered from, and stacked along, the tower's vertical axis. The tower's base is envisioned as the new home for a cultural or other institutional user.

Mr. Sciame said, "As a result of the leadership and vision of Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, I firmly believe that over the next decade Lower Manhattan will increasingly find itself at the City's emotional heart and quickly emerge as New York's most dynamic neighborhood. This tower is an affirmation that the bold dreams of the public sector have engendered bold dreams in the private sector. We are proud to make an investment in Downtown and visionary architecture."

The tower will contain 175,000 square feet of public cultural and private living space. As envisioned by the architect, each of the townhouse cubes may contain its own individual elevator. Original plans call for two-story living rooms, but Mr. Calatrava said that he would be willing to design interior spaces according to the new residents' requirements.

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