After years of glass dominating skyscraper construction in New York, architects in the city are returning to stone and other solid-looking materials to cover their towers. Dezeen spoke to those ditching glazing for alternative cladding to find out why.
SHoP Architects' Gregg Pasquarelli ? the design principal behind a pair of copper-clad skyscrapers completed last year beside the East River ? believes that glazing has become too obvious as a choice for architects and developers, and that it is quickly going out of style.
"Blue glass is the pleated khaki of facades," Pasquarelli told Dezeen. "While some are spectacular, many glass facades have become a default design solution, usually when the client or the architect is out of ideas." "These buildings often make bad neighbours, and are difficult to furnish or to hang art in your home," he added.
"Simple glass boxes" become passé
Over the past two decades, New York skyscrapers have predominantly shared a similar aesthetic thanks to blue glass used to sheathe them.
Nearly all the towers in the clusters around the World Trade Center, Times Square and Hudson Yards ? as well as many elsewhere in the city ? are wrapped in textureless panels that reflect their surroundings and allow in ample natural light.
But a series of recent proposals across Manhattan and Brooklyn is signalling a move away from stark glazing in favour of masonry, concrete and metal ? harking back to New York's golden age...