High-Profile Manhattan Tower is Veteran Builder's Last Hurrah
The New York Times Co. has made it as clear as the ultra- transparent glass on Renzo Piano’s 52-story office tower for the media giant’s midtown Manhattan headquarters: An educated “consumer” can be heaven for the design team and just the opposite for the construction manager.
The Times and its local development partner, Forest City Ratner Cos., gave the designers the coveted luxury of three years’ time to pore over the details of the high-profile project’s unusual components, from the light gray, horizontal filigree sunscreen that masks the 650,000-sq-ft facade to the outdoor-steel exoskeleton. Between October 2000, when the owner announced Renzo Piano Building Workshop with FXFowle as its architect, and November 2003, when the local AMEC Construction Management Inc. was signed on as CM, the owner held expert-advice summits, built mock-ups and arranged for studies to inform its team.