Design Reserach Project
Page 5
Public Contribution in High-Rise Building Design
@ New York City
Squibb Building
Address:42, 57th Street &
Architect:
It is an international style building on the 57th Street. It has a look of international style. It is not an important building. It was not designed by any famous architects and it has no innovative in terms of urban space design. It is not even a big building. If one looks on the 57th Street’s scape, this building will be just a gone into the environment.
However, what I see about this building is the very special public way that it provides. Looking at the signage, especially the name of the building, there are 2 addresses on it which is very special compareed to other buildings in New York. Of course, a lot of buildings in New York City has the fa?ade against 2 streets, or even sometimes 2 avenues. But the address is normally selected to be on one street only and that street is always the major street. Such as the choice for 57th Street and 58th Street, the owner would rather choose 57th Street because of its elegance in terms of size and activity. The address can gain more reputation to the tenants and owner himself.
Eventhough I can not find the reasons for this building to have 2 addresses, the result is obvious that they tried to make both side, 57th street side and 58th street side, become the major entrances of the building. They are equally important.
Picture: The connection that link both streets together make the building has 2 front side.
The way they did was to make the high-ceiling open air walkway space through the ground floor of the building. Both sides can see the other street's activities. From 57th Street entrance, one can see the activities of 58th street and vise versa. Later the lobby of the building that contains the elevator core was placed next to this walkway.
This walkway gives the people the total sense of public space because:
1. It is an outdoor space, pedestrians are confident to walk into this space without confusion that they are entering the building that may be a private property. This is because all you can see from one spot is the street view only.
2. The height of the ceiling makes the people feel comfortable to walk into it. Sunlight is so easy to penetrate into the space, but only for indirect light.
Picture: Connection Between 2 Streets
In the daytime, there are lots of people using this walkway from each street to another. Also the people who work in this building always have a choice that they can go to any side without considering whether it is the back of the building or not. There may be some dirty feature such as garbage there. However, for architectural design, it is always a good performance to be able to create the building without backdoor, the building that every entrance is treated well
I walked pass this building many times and realized that the knowledge of public contribution in high-rise building design is not only can be found in the big and famous buildings. But it is everywhere if I take a careful look.