A brand new building that will touch New York's Cooper Square skies is on its way. At 51 Astor Place, construction of a mixed use building is going ahead full throttle. The building is expected to be completed soon.
The high-rise is being developed by Edward J. Minskoff and will be the most dramatic building of the area. Designed by Pritzker Prize winner, Fumihiko Maki from Japan, it will be a 13 story structure, which will be used for official as well as educational purposes, reports Curbed National.
Designing the building was quite a challenge for Maki as the street's plan is pretty complicated. He has designed a dark obelisk structure, which will hold around 90,000 square feet of office space.
The higher floors of the building will be utilized as office space while the middle and lower areas will hold classrooms. Considering the latter's purpose, the middle and lower floors are done with aluminum and lighter glass. A triangle shaped plaza will face the college dive bars, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The western side of the building will be used as office space and the eastern side of it will be utilized for education, socializing and learning. Minskoff has negotiated a $97 million lease of 99 years for the building, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The building is bound to attract high profile companies as the design favors technological or financial firms.
"Companies today in the field of tech, they're very young. They do not want to live or work above 14th Street," Minskoff told the WSJ. "This was a classic case of an opportunity to take a wonderful site and really put a special building there. It's dramatic, it's great-looking, it fits in to the neighborhood, it's not overbearing."
Cooper Square was named after the famous Industrialist, Peter Cooper who had the Cooper Union built in the area. The Cooper Union's original home was the Foundation Building
Though the concept of the building is interesting, it does not live up to the legacy of architecture of Cooper Square, reports Curbed National.
