Global architecture firm BIG has designed a pair of Manhattan skyscrapers connected by a twisting skybridge as part of a four-tower development that includes a spiral-shaped museum at its centre.
Freedom Plaza will be located on a 6.7-acre (2.7-hectare) site which sits across from the United Nations (UN) Headquarters complex and flanks the entrance to the Queens-Midtown tunnel in Manhattan's Midtown East neighbourhood.
BIG has created a four-tower development along New York's East River
Developed with Soloviev Group and Mohegan, the project is oriented towards the East River and will consist of two residential and two conjoined hotel skyscrapers that enclose a central park designed by US studio OJB Landscape Architecture with the spiral-shaped Museum of Freedom and Democracy at its centre. "The design respects the celebrated UN complex to the north while also adding playful and sculptural elements to the waterfront," said the team in a statement.
It was informed by New York's historical modernist buildings and the UN Headquarters
"Bookending the park are two pairs of towers, joined at the base or top and each framing a corner plaza: one showcasing the life of the city and the other forming an urban gate from the city to the upper park and East River beyond," said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels in a statement.
"Balanced on a perch overlooking the river, the Museum of Democracy neighbours the towers and celebrates the origin and evolution of one of the mos...