24
A.S.: When we do the tallest building in
China or Dubai or Saudi Arabia, they’re
exuberant about that. New York is a much
more sensitive environment, so we have to
try to do the right thing for the site, design
as beautiful a building as we can, be very
respectful of the neighborhood, and try to
improve on what’s there.
J.D.: Right. Some of your towers effec-
tively create a new skyline from scratch.
Here, you’re making a statement in a his-
toric skyline. That’s a heavy responsibility.
G.G.: A building has to speak to you from
the street, from the middle, and from the
skyline. So that conversation on the skyline
is between us, the Chrysler Building, the
Empire State Building, and all the other
iconic symbols of the city. We hope that this
building will participate in that dialogue,
not just because of its height but because of
its character.
A.S.: The lighting is part of that: It’s sub-
tle, not garish. The tall vertical slots at the
top will be lit up nicely with white light, and
it’s a big enough mass to be seen among the
cacophony of windows.
J.D.: How about during the day?
A.S.: Because of the kind of glass we’re
using, it won’t be this big blob but will
blend with the sky and reflect it. The build-
ing will have this disappearing quality.
J.D.: It’ll just vanish, huh? [Skeptical rais-
ing of eyebrows.] We’ve seen a spate of
these very thin residential buildings, espe-
cially along 57th Street. The global hyper-
luxury real-estate market made them
financially feasible, but what recent tech-
nological advances make them possible?
G.G.: The materials, for one thing. On Burj
Khalifa, they ran concrete through tubes in
the desert, and it looks like water but it
hardens to an incredible strength. More
important, though, is the kind of deep anal-
ysis of performance characteristics, the rela-
tionship between structure and architec-
ture. We don’t want to create a form, then
shove a structure into it and try to make it
work. We fuse them from the beginning.
A.S.: Every time you do the tallest build-
ing in the world, it’s completely new. You
study and test, and you find new issues.
When I was doing Jin Mao [in Shanghai in
1999], I remember saying, “We’re going to
add 10 percent to the body of knowledge
about super-tall buildings.” Well, there are
100 buildings this tall now, either in the
planning stages or built. Each time you do
that, you learn something more.
J.D.: So if the zoning and the neighbors
allowed it, could you have gone even taller
right here?
A.S.: Oh yeah. Jeddah Tower is twice the
height of this one. You could drop that in
here, for sure. ■G.G.:Asthewindgoesaroundthebuild-
ing,it accelerates,andit createsvorticesthat
alternate,causingthebuildingto movefrom
sidetoside.Sometimeswecanusethatphe-
nomenon,cuttingopeningsforthewind
andconvertingit toenergywithturbines.
Here,we’renottryingtobringthewind
throughthebuilding;we’remanagingit,
shapingthenotchestooptimizewindflow.
A buildingis likeaninstrument:Youusesci-
encetomakea kindofart.
J.D.:Sois a super-tallskyscraperfunda-
mentallydifferentfroma plainoldhigh-
rise,orisitjusta biggerversionofthe
samething?
G.G.:Peoplesaythingslike“Oh,a 120-
storybuildingis justtwo60-storybuild-
ingsstacked.”That’snottrue.Thewind
speedsaredifferent,theperformanceis
different—everythingchanges.If youmake
a mistakeononeofthesebuildings,you
havetomultiplyit bya thousand.
J.D.:If yougetit wrong,canyouadjust?
A.S.:WhenTaipei101,whichwasthe
world’stallestatthetime,was
underconstruction,theyhad
reachedthreestoriesorso
whentheyfinallygotthewind-
tunneltestdone.Andthetest
saidthisbuildingis goingto
movelikecrazy—youhaveto
changeit.Theyhadtocuta
sawtoothoneverycorner,put
in a 660-ton damper, and
roughenupthewallshereand
there.Otherwise,it wouldhave
failed.I mean,it wouldn’thave
collapsed,butit wouldhave
beenveryuncomfortable.
J.D.:Asidefromthewayit
accommodatesourovercom-
plicatedwindpatterns,what
elsemakesthisa distinctively
NewYorkbuilding?
G.G.:ThestandardsinNew
Yorkareveryhighandsoare
theexpectations.Thatleads
todelicatedetailanda lotof
attentionpaidtowherethe
columnsare,thesizeofthe
glass,theproportionsofthe
rooms,theacousticisolation.
It’snota loosedesign.
A.S.:Lookatthestainless-
steel fins onthe exterior.
Eventually,whentheprotec-
tivecoatingcomesoff,you’ll
seegradations oflighton
them,thewaytheysparkle
andareoffsetfromthewallso
the façade hasa senseof
depthandrichness.
J.D.:Theylooklikeshiny
pinstripes.
intelligencer
515 feet
Theflattopof
theSeagram
Building305 feet
Thetorch
oftheStatue
ofLiberty(^200) (approx.)feet
14thfloor