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Thinking Outside Box,Architect Comes Up With Cubes


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NYC Thinking outside the Box, Architect Comes Up With Cubes

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By DAVID W. DUNLAP

NY Times

Published: March 3, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/nyregion...rava.html?8hpib

Fresh from causing a sensation with his avian design for the World Trade Center transportation hub, the architect and artist Santiago Calatrava is ready to make a second startling mark on the Lower Manhattan skyline with a residential tower unlike any New York has ever seen.

It would take the form of an offset stack of 45-foot glass cubes, a dozen in all, each intended to house only one or two families.

Resembling some of Mr. Calatrava's sculptures, but on a titanic scale of 835 feet, the tower would rise over the East River at South and Fletcher Streets, near the South Street Seaport and the Brooklyn Bridge. The developer, Frank J. Sciame, estimated its completion in 2006 or 2007.

It will be very expensive to build - just how expensive the developer will not say - and very expensive for prospective owners. But then again, Mr. Sciame said, "you only need between 12 and 24 interested parties in the entire world."

In an alternating pattern, four-story cubes would be cantilevered from a concrete core containing elevators, stairways, plumbing and electric lines. Alongside the cubes would be pairs of slender stabilizing spines, turning the entire composition into a gigantic truss. The top of one cube would serve as the terrace for the next cube up.

The cubes could be single dwellings of about 10,000 square feet, or divided. The building would also have an eight-story base that could house a museum or other cultural institution.

"We cannot say form follows function," Mr. Calatrava said yesterday by telephone from his home in Zurich. "In this case, function follows form. And it works."

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Skyline in the making?

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Resembling some of Mr. Calatrava's sculptures, but on a titanic scale of 835 feet, the tower would rise over the East River at South and Fletcher Streets, near the South Street Seaport and the Brooklyn Bridge. The developer, Frank J. Sciame, estimated its completion in 2006 or 2007.

Perhaps not every preservationist would agree that a structure reaching 1,000 feet at the tip of its mast would complement a nearby precinct of 19th-century countinghouses.

But Madelyn Wils, the chairwoman of the Lower Manhattan community board, said she did not think that the structure's height would be controversial particularly given its slenderness and transparency. "It's such an unusual building, it's worth taking a chance on," she said.

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NY POST

SEAPORT SKY CUBES GET OK

By LOIS WEISS

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SEAPORT STUNNER: Santiago Calatrava's $35 million townhouse cleared a big hurdle, winning an approval from the New York City Department of Buildings.

February 9, 2005

THE construction of Santiago Calatrava's $35 million townhome cubes in the sky has received a "go" from the New York City Department of Buildings.

We could almost hear the wood creaking at 80 Front St. as developer Frank Sciame jumped for joy at the news.

Sciame's eponymous construction company owns and uses the current building for its own offices.

This project, he said, will redefine residential living.

"The price reflects both design and quality," Sciame said, "and it will be the most expensive residential tower in the city."

Along with a concrete core and three elevators serving the 10 townhomes and two lower commercial units, each glass and stainless-steel cube will have its own internal elevator.

The design calls for one cube's roof to become the outdoor garden for the cube above.

An eight-story, 60,000 square-foot base will end up with a museum or other boutique arts attraction, while the commercial units are expected to be purchased by upscale office users

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