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2000-2007
Serge Drouin as Lead Architect at Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Location: New York, NY, USA
Status : Completed
Client:The New York Times and Forest City Ratner Company
Design: Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Bernard Plattner Partner, Erik Volz Associate in Charge, in collaboration with FXFowle Architects P.C.
Consultants: Thornton Tomasetti; Flack & Kurtz; Jenkins & Huntington; Heitman & Associates; OVI; Gensler Associates; H.M.White; AMEC
Program : Offices, Retail, Auditorium
Area: 1 500 000 SF
Program and Design Concept
Renzo Piano Building workshop won the competition for the design of the New York Times building in 2000. The 52-story tower is the home of the headquarters of the New York Times Company.
The primary, rectilinear shape of the building relates to Manhattan’s grid of streets. Occupying half a block between West 40th and 41st streets, the slender, cruciform tower meets the ground at 8th Avenue. A four-story podium wrapped around a courtyard garden serves as the New York Times newsroom
The building is designed to be as transparent and permeable as possible, expressing the newspaper’s culture of openness. The ground floor is open and accessible to anyone. Several stores and restaurants activate the ground level streetscape. The lobby allows views through to the open-air courtyard garden, a serene space landscaped with birch trees and tall grasses. The garden provides a backdrop to a 378-seat flexible auditorium.
The building has a unique double façade with an outer layer of 175,000 horizontal off-white ceramic rods supported on a thin aluminum framework in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass of the inner facade. The color of the ceramic rods shifts in response to the changing city light and weather conditions. The ceramic rods act as an energy-efficient sunscreen, capable of blocking up to 50% of the sun’s rays. This allows the inner glazing to be highly transparent, flooding the interior with incredible amounts of natural light, and maximizing views in and out of the building.
The building structure is expressed with the exoskeleton of articulated steel columns, beams, and bracing. It is possible to read and even feel how the building stands. A 100 ft mast extends the top of the building to blend with the sky.
Serge Drouin was the Lead Architect at Renzo Piano Building Workshop . He moved to NYC to follow the site during the entire construction phase, supervising all the key design elements.
Program and Design Concept
Renzo Piano Building workshop won the competition for the design of the New York Times building in 2000. The 52-story tower is the home of the headquarters of the New York Times Company.
The primary, rectilinear shape of the building relates to Manhattan’s grid of streets. Occupying half a block between West 40th and 41st streets, the slender, cruciform tower meets the ground at 8th Avenue. A four-story podium wrapped around a courtyard garden serves as the New York Times newsroom
The building is designed to be as transparent and permeable as possible, expressing the newspaper’s culture of openness. The ground floor is open and accessible to anyone. Several stores and restaurants activate the ground level streetscape. The lobby allows views through to the open-air courtyard garden, a serene space landscaped with birch trees and tall grasses. The garden provides a backdrop to a 378-seat flexible auditorium.
The building has a unique double façade with an outer layer of 175,000 horizontal off-white ceramic rods supported on a thin aluminum framework in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass of the inner facade. The color of the ceramic rods shifts in response to the changing city light and weather conditions. The ceramic rods act as an energy-efficient sunscreen, capable of blocking up to 50% of the sun’s rays. This allows the inner glazing to be highly transparent, flooding the interior with incredible amounts of natural light, and maximizing views in and out of the building.
The building structure is expressed with the exoskeleton of articulated steel columns, beams, and bracing. It is possible to read and even feel how the building stands. A 100 ft mast extends the top of the building to blend with the sky.
Serge Drouin was the Lead Architect at Renzo Piano Building Workshop . He moved to NYC to follow the site during the entire construction phase, supervising all the key design elements.
