CONTEMPORARY NY
MID42D.jpg (72460 bytes) New York Architecture Images- Midtown

Trump Tower

architect

Der Scutt (design architect) and Swanke Hayden Connell & Partners (architects) 

location

725 Fifth Ave, at E56. 

date

1983

style

International Style II  

construction

bronze glass  68 floors, 203 m high

type

Apartment Building

 

 
 
 
 
 

notes

A tall residential tower, this building takes its architectural cues from the surrounding commercial district in a posh area of Manhattan located at the crossroads of Midtown and Central Park. Trump Tower is a sleek high-rise clad in dark reflective glass with setbacks beginning near of the base of the tower which lessen the impact of its bulk on the street below. Inside, the building features a multi-story shopping atrium clad in expensive stone with brass accents. A cascading waterfall directly across from the entrance forms the monumental centerpiece of the open interior. The expensive, upscale boutiques are accessed by escalators that rise dramatically through the airy space of the atrium. Intended for an exclusive, wealthy clientele, the luxurious shopping experience at the base of the building is accessible to the general public.

United States of America are the paradise of tycoons. These multimillionaires think there are living examples of the American Dream ("Where there's a will, there's a way"); the minorities and the too many rejected people affirm it is an American Nightmare. Mr Donald Trump is what America can produce the worst, and there's a world between respected names like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt or Guggenheim and these dangerous sharks: culture. The skyscraper Mr Trump decided to build to his glory is in his own image, pretentious, loud and flashy. The idea of cutting a prism into vertical truncatures to deconstruct the miesan box is not a bad one, but in a more restrained sense. The setbacks treated as a cascade from the southwest corner, each tier agremented with a single shrub, are ridiculous. The visit of the lobby and the atrium is a must: gaudy, tasteless and nouveau riche at the same time. 

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