175 Greenwich Street, World Trade Center Site
New York, New York · 2006
A precedent for high-tech supertall skyscraper design featuring external structural steel bracing and stepped glass volumes to articulate a complex urban skyline profile.
- What we like about this project
- The way the massive diagonal steel braces taper and pin at key structural nodes along the facade.
Materials
- glass
- steel
- aluminum
Visual identifiers
- external-bracing
- glass-facade
- stepped-massing
- supertall-skyscraper
Style tags
- high-tech
- structural-expressionism
- modernist
Visual tags
- high-tech
- structural-expressionism
- skyline
- urban-density
- commercial-office
- Geometry
- A cluster of three high-rise towers. The central tower features a prominent external steel bracing system forming large-scale diamond patterns (mega-bracing) along its narrow face, flanked by stepped glass volumes.
- Facade system
- Glass curtain wall with integrated external structural steel mega-frame.
- Structural guess
- Steel outrigger system with external mega-bracing and a concrete core.
- Spatial scale
- Supertall skyscraper scale, contrasting with the human-scaled park and transit hub structure at ground level.
- Lighting
- Bright, clear daylight with soft reflections on the glass facades and sharp highlights on the structural steel elements.
- Atmosphere
- A crisp, optimistic morning atmosphere with reflective glass surfaces blending into a clear blue sky.
- Environmental context
- Dense urban context at the World Trade Center site in New York, with adjacent high-rise towers and public park spaces visible at the base.
- Spatial experience
- The towers rise dramatically from a public plaza level, creating a soaring vertical presence that defines the skyline and frames the public realm below.
- Composition rhythm
- The central tower's bold diagonal bracing creates a strong vertical rhythm that contrasts with the horizontal floor plates of the flanking glass towers.
- Style reading
- High-Tech Structural Expressionism
- Program
- Commercial office headquarters
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- glass, steel, aluminum
- Visual identifiers
- external-bracing, glass-facade, stepped-massing, supertall-skyscraper
- Style tags
- high-tech, structural-expressionism, modernist
- Visual tags
- high-tech, structural-expressionism, skyline, urban-density, commercial-office
- Geometry
- A cluster of three high-rise towers. The central tower features a prominent external steel bracing system forming large-scale diamond patterns (mega-bracing) along its narrow face, flanked by stepped glass volumes.
- Facade system
- Glass curtain wall with integrated external structural steel mega-frame.
- Structural guess
- Steel outrigger system with external mega-bracing and a concrete core.
- Spatial scale
- Supertall skyscraper scale, contrasting with the human-scaled park and transit hub structure at ground level.
- Lighting
- Bright, clear daylight with soft reflections on the glass facades and sharp highlights on the structural steel elements.
- Atmosphere
- A crisp, optimistic morning atmosphere with reflective glass surfaces blending into a clear blue sky.
- Environmental context
- Dense urban context at the World Trade Center site in New York, with adjacent high-rise towers and public park spaces visible at the base.
- Spatial experience
- The towers rise dramatically from a public plaza level, creating a soaring vertical presence that defines the skyline and frames the public realm below.
- Composition rhythm
- The central tower's bold diagonal bracing creates a strong vertical rhythm that contrasts with the horizontal floor plates of the flanking glass towers.
- Style reading
- High-Tech Structural Expressionism
- Program
- Commercial office headquarters
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture