Hearst Tower in New York by Foster and Partners

    In this post i would like to talk about the work of the British architect Norman Foster. Foster and Partners is currently one of the most successful and prestigious architecture offices in the world. Foster started his carrier in the 1970s with some very unique and conceptually successful projects.

MIillennium Bridge © Flickr- username: Ingy The Wingy

    Later his practice grew to big international scale and has currently more than one thousand people working in many countries. Some of the projects that you may be familiar from the office are for example: The Millennium Bridge in London from the year 2000 that connects the St Paul's Cathedral and the Tate Modern Gallery and you may also know the Wembley Stadium from year 2002 in London with this large arch covering the large space underneath forming one of the largest stadiums in the world.

Wembley Stadium © Flickr- username: Martin Pettitt

The office is well known for designing towers. One of the most successful towers the designed is the Swiss Re Tower in London from the year 2002, which is headquarters of an international insurance company. The tower is known for being very sustainable and using this air flow to pass the hot air through the building and take it out near the roof. The building uses diagrid and has oval shape and circular plan.

Swiss Re Tower  © Flickr- username: youflavio

    These idea of the diagrid was adopted by Norman Foster and his partners in a project for Hearst Tower in New York City completed in 2007. In this tower the architect uses diagrid or this diagonal structure which saves 20 percent of steel used for the building that not only makes the building more sustainable but also saves significant cost as the structure is one of the most expensive part of the building.

Hearst Tower  © Flickr- username: wallyg

The building was commissioned in the year 2001, right before the 9/11 and it was put on hold for some years after the 9/11 attacks in New York. The project for  the Hears Corporation was originally designed in 1926 in Art Deco style by Joseph Urban. The project was never completed originally, but even in the initial phases it envisioned a base with large tower above it. This is why the Landmarks Commission in New York approved the tower by Foster and Partners because it was already the idea that there would be a tower in this place.

Detail of the old facade  © Flickr- username: Antonio Viva

 The tower is located near Columbus circle on the corner of Central Park in New York City near Brodway in 8 Avenue. The project is near the Time Warner Center and also in the same avenue is the New York Times building by Renzo Piano. The differnce between this tower and the tower of Renzo Piano is that here the structure is exposed, is shown in the perimeter. Its in the same plane as the glass facade, while Renzo Piano separates and distinguishes what is the structure, what is the glass, and what are the metal rods that protect from the sun.

New York Times building  © Flickr- username: chapsRLZ

 The diagrid shape of the structure creates this unique feature in the corners of the building. Sometimes the window are facing down, sometimes the windows are facing up and they provide these unique views when one is in the interior and facing the outside. The building has some of the best views in New York City overseeing the Hudson River Park and Midtown Manhattan.

Diagrid structure of Hearst Tower  © Flickr- username: The PNG Scotts

The lobby of the building was designed by James Carpenter an architect and designer from New York City and has this waterfall which features water that go through the building and is used for evaporative cooling. The building is of the most sustainable buildings in the city: recycles its rain water, uses renewable energy and minimizes the use of air conditioning.

The Lobby of Hearst Tower  © Flickr- username:.HEI

The large lobby is an unique feature in the building, it is the place where the old building facade meets the new building. The two facades are separated and in the point of separation the architect designs a large glass facade, a big glass window in the upper part that allows the light to go through and to illuminate the public space that is right below it which is now use as a lobby and a as cafeteria.