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From Architectural Record:
archrecord.construction.c...217oma.asp (2 renderings)
OMA Designing Stacked Towers in Louisville
February 17, 2006
At sixty-one stories, the multi-part Museum Plaza tower in Louisville will be the tallest building in Kentucky and one of the tallest in the region. The Office for Metropolitan Architecture’s (OMA) New York studio is designing the building, which was unveiled on February 9. And, though it reaches more than 100 feet higher than Johnson/Burgee’s Aegon Tower nearby, the structure is more like a series of small buildings stacked on top of each other than a monolithic tower. “We’ve been interested in the question, ‘Can something be both a credible whole and a series of parts?’†says Joshua Prince-Ramus, OMA’s lead designer on the project.
The mixed-use, 1.2 million-square-foot structure includes 300,000 square feet of office space, a 300-room hotel, 85 luxury condominiums, and 150 lofts. A contemporary art museum will be located twenty-two stories in the air, in a common space the architects are calling “the Island.†The Island will serve as a sky lobby for the office building and condos. It will contain conference space, a gym, bar, and other components. An angled, glass-tube elevator will carry visitors from West Main Street up to the Island. Artists and curators will program the museum spaces, and the communal spaces as well.
While the building’s form may be unorthodox, it reflects careful consideration of the difficult site conditions. “We’re reconfiguring known parts, not inventing typologies," says Prince-Ramus.
The building will be sandwiched between Interstate 64 along the Ohio River and the historic district of West Main Street. Downtown Louisville lacks much density, so the architects sought to maximize the program on the small site. The project’s diverse commercial components will pay for the cultural components. The new Muhammad Ali Center, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, will be immediately east of the OMA building, and will share an elevated plaza, as will the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, the Louisville Science Center and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.
Philanthropists Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown (Brown’s family controls the Brown-Forman liquor company), developer Steve Poe, and attorney Craig Greenburg are developing the $380 million project. The city and state are expected to contribute $75 million for site work, including relocation of the floodwall and realignment of a block of Seventh Street. The developers expect to complete the project by 2010.
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CCTV (Beijing) Lite. Honestly, however, I wonder if this would even get built...
AoD
archrecord.construction.c...217oma.asp (2 renderings)
OMA Designing Stacked Towers in Louisville
February 17, 2006
At sixty-one stories, the multi-part Museum Plaza tower in Louisville will be the tallest building in Kentucky and one of the tallest in the region. The Office for Metropolitan Architecture’s (OMA) New York studio is designing the building, which was unveiled on February 9. And, though it reaches more than 100 feet higher than Johnson/Burgee’s Aegon Tower nearby, the structure is more like a series of small buildings stacked on top of each other than a monolithic tower. “We’ve been interested in the question, ‘Can something be both a credible whole and a series of parts?’†says Joshua Prince-Ramus, OMA’s lead designer on the project.
The mixed-use, 1.2 million-square-foot structure includes 300,000 square feet of office space, a 300-room hotel, 85 luxury condominiums, and 150 lofts. A contemporary art museum will be located twenty-two stories in the air, in a common space the architects are calling “the Island.†The Island will serve as a sky lobby for the office building and condos. It will contain conference space, a gym, bar, and other components. An angled, glass-tube elevator will carry visitors from West Main Street up to the Island. Artists and curators will program the museum spaces, and the communal spaces as well.
While the building’s form may be unorthodox, it reflects careful consideration of the difficult site conditions. “We’re reconfiguring known parts, not inventing typologies," says Prince-Ramus.
The building will be sandwiched between Interstate 64 along the Ohio River and the historic district of West Main Street. Downtown Louisville lacks much density, so the architects sought to maximize the program on the small site. The project’s diverse commercial components will pay for the cultural components. The new Muhammad Ali Center, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, will be immediately east of the OMA building, and will share an elevated plaza, as will the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, the Louisville Science Center and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.
Philanthropists Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown (Brown’s family controls the Brown-Forman liquor company), developer Steve Poe, and attorney Craig Greenburg are developing the $380 million project. The city and state are expected to contribute $75 million for site work, including relocation of the floodwall and realignment of a block of Seventh Street. The developers expect to complete the project by 2010.
_________________________________________________
CCTV (Beijing) Lite. Honestly, however, I wonder if this would even get built...
AoD
