Gothic architecture might be all the rage in the fictional world (just look at Gotham city in the DC Comics universe), but in reality, there's something of a stigma attached to it. It's the antithesis of the clean, plain, cold exteriors favoured by most modern architects and designers, and as such, is a style that's fallen out of favour with the bourgeois types in recent years. Not, however, with celebrated architect Mark Foster Gage, who calls New York his home, and has proposed a 102-storey tower covered in Gothic sculptural elements for the centre Manhattan, in response to the proliferation of super tall skyscrapers that he feels are “Virtually free of architectural design.”
Celebrated architect Mark Foster Gage has proposed a 102-storey tower covered in Gothic sculptural elements for the centre Manhattan
Gage designed the highly decorative residential building for West 57th Street as an alternative to the more conventional skyscrapers currently springing up in Midtown. His proposal features four enormous cantilevered balconies, supported by concrete carved wings that extend outwards from the structure's exterior. Intricate details cover the tower: limestone-tinted concrete sculptures resemble the fronts of cars and propellers, while others serve as unconventional gargoyles. The building is also decorated with symmetrical geometric shapes, placed on all four sides. Gage, who was a founding partner at Gage/Clemenceau Architects from 2001 to 2013, and founded Mark Foster Gage Architects in 2014, has suggested robotic CNC technology could be used to create the carvings.
As you'll see from the spectacular designs dotted around this very page, it's a bold, almost cinematic design. Bronze and brass decorative details extend up the tower, and have been used to create cog-shaped elements at the base and curved sections that echo the forms of the wings further up the building. At the top of the tower, meanwhile, a viewing platform is framed by sculptural metal details, including what appear to be the faces of pig-like creatures at each corner. The 64th floor of the building includes a sky lobby with various retail spaces, as well as a two-storey ballroom. Visitors will also be able to visit a restaurant that will offer a dining experience unique to the city of New York. According to the architect, each of the apartments in the building will also have its own unique sculptural exterior, designed to frame particular features of the surrounding urban and natural landscapes.
Gage designed the highly decorative residential building for West 57th Street as an alternative to the more conventional skyscrapers currently springing up in Midtown
Gage, who serves as assistant dean at the Yale School of Architecture, said: “I think that many of the super tall buildings being built in New York City are virtually free of architectural design – they are just tall boxes covered in selected glass curtain wall products. That is not design. Design is thinking of a great many things like how a building appears from different distances, or in this case, how to make each floor unique to the owner. How to make it more than just floor-space in the sky but also something beautiful and hopefully more meaningful to them and the city. Our primary interest wasn't symbolism as might have been the case with such sculptural forms a century ago. Instead we were interested in having high and low resolution areas on the facade, so the building revealed different qualities from different viewing distances, including from the interior.”
Other proposed designs for new towers for the city include the ODA residential tower with open-air terraces, and the trio of proposals by Dror Benshetrit for residential buildings on different sites of New York. However some New Yorkers have spoken out against the rise in super-tall skinny skyscrapers, claiming they could overshadow Central Park. I've never been to New York (though I am planning a trip early next year), though to me, speaking as someone whose highly romanticised vision of the city stems from decades of televisual and cinematic immersion, it's the sky scrapers that make the city what it is. So surely it's about time the darker corners city's personality were given a chance to shine in a building that reflects the cultural history and vintage glamour of the Big Apple.
41 West 57th Street
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK who is hitting NYC for the first time in March next year and would seriously appreciate any tips. Because at heart, he's a bit of a country bumpkin.
