Mark Foster Gage designed a highly decorative residential building for West 57th Street as an alternative to the more conventional skyscrapers currently springing up in Midtown.
A 102-story residential building with sweeping views of Central Park and the New York City skyline designed by Mark Foster Gage Architects. Each unit has its own unique figurally carved façade and balconies that frame particular features of the surrounding urban and natural landscapes. The building is draped in a façade of limestone-tinted Taktl© concrete panels -using robotic CNC technology- with hydroformed sheet-bronze details and brass-tinted alloy structural extrusion enclosures. Bronze and brass decorative details extend up the tower, and have been used to create cog-shaped elements at the base and curved sections that echo the forms of the wings further up the building. At the top of the tower, a viewing platform is framed by sculptural metal details, including what appear to be the faces of pig-like creatures at each corner.
Dubbed the Khaleesi, the skyscraper would mainly feature residences, with some space reserved for retail shops. The 64th floor features a sky-lobby with exclusive retail stores, a 2-story high ballroom for events, and a 4-star restaurant all of which have access to four massive cantilevered balconies that offer an awe-inspiring event and dining experience unique to the city of New York.
"I think that many of the supertall buildings being built in New York City are virtually free of architectural design – they are just tall boxes covered in selected glass curtain wall products," said Gage, who serves as assistant dean at the Yale School of Architecture. He added, "That is not design. Design is thinking of a great many things like how a building appears from different distances, or in this case, how to make each floor unique to the owner."
